The Donkey Kong family tree is something that has been confusing gamers for decades. There have been various theories out there and many hot takes. I, however, have always felt there were problems with most of these. The answers to many questions surrounding the Donkey Kong family may seem straightforward, but they are definitely more complicated than most think.

After the release of Donkey Kong Bananza I went down a deep hole of DK and Mario lore, and truly understanding much of it meant figuring out the Donkey Kong family tree. After tons of research I'm here to announce the only logical conclusion I've come to and how I got to those results. So buckle up, because this is going to get Kong wild.

Note: Everything here is based on the video games. The Mario Movie and several other pieces of DK/Mario media exist in different canonical settings/universes that may have some similarities but can't mix in with the timeline and DK family tree of the games.

Terminology

First I need to make sure that some terminology is understood before moving forward. There are multiple characters named Donkey Kong, and I'll be using the following names to differentiate them:

Cranky Kong - The original Donkey Kong who first appeared in Donkey Kong for arcades.

Donkey Kong Jr. - Son of Cranky Kong who first appeared in Donkey Kong Junior for arcades.

Modern Donkey Kong - Grandson of Cranky Kong whose first appearance is in Donkey Kong Country.

There are some other Donkey Kongs, either characters or forms, but I'll explain those when I get there. For now, this key should help avoid any confusion when trying to explain which Donkey Kong I'm talking about.

Basic Donkey Kong Timeline

Before going further it's important to establish the basics of the Donkey Kong timeline. I'd like to explore a larger Mario and Donkey Kong timeline in the future, but for now it's only important to focus on some core games and info to give a baseline. Not everything will be mentioned here as my intention is to focus on games providing key information for figuring out the Donkey Kong family tree. Additionally, based on evidence found in these games or supplementary information, there is almost no debate as to the following chronological order to these titles.

Basic Limited DK Timeline:

Yoshi's Island DS

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong Junior

Donkey Kong (Game Boy)

Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble

Donkey Kong 64

Common Misconceptions

The first misconception with the Donkey Kong family tree concerns Cranky Kong's relationship with Modern Donkey Kong. Some think Modern Donkey Kong is Cranky Kong's son due to some language used at times referring to him as such, but almost all media in the games refer to Modern Donkey Kong as the grandson of Cranky Kong, or Cranky Kong as Modern Donkey Kong's grandfather. This isn't debated that much but I think it's important to make that distinction.

The biggest misconception when it comes to the Donkey Kong family tree is that Modern Donkey Kong is the son of Donkey Kong Jr. That would make Modern Donkey Kong the grandchild of Cranky Kong. Case closed! However, this doesn't make any sense and no game calls Modern Donkey Kong the son of Donkey Kong Jr.

You see, since the Mario universe is the same as Donkey Kong we have to use Mario as an outside marker for things going on within the DK timeline. It's easy to assume Modern Donkey Kong is the son of Donkey Kong Jr., but when you look at the timeline with Mario included, this theory falls apart.

Thanks to Yoshi's Island DS, we know for a fact that Modern Donkey Kong was born around the same time as Mario since both Baby Mario and Baby Donkey Kong appear in this game. Some will argue that Baby Donkey Kong is actually Cranky Kong but this logic doesn't make sense either.

If Cranky Kong and Mario were the same age, then how come Mario isn't old when Cranky is? In this scenario, how is Donkey Kong Jr.’s alleged son, Modern Donkey Kong, seemingly near the same age as Mario? It just doesn't add up.

In Donkey Kong Junior, the young son of Cranky Kong battles a clearly adult, most certainly young adult, Mario. Mario is younger than Cranky Kong and older than Donkey Kong Jr. This means Baby Donkey Kong has to be Modern Donkey Kong as he's the only Donkey Kong left that's unaccounted for.

The age differences can also be seen in Donkey Kong (Game Boy). In this game, Mario battles Cranky Kong and a young Donkey Kong Jr. This is also the last game Cranky Kong is seen as middle aged before truly becoming the old man known as Cranky Kong. Many games take place after this point and Mario still isn’t old, but Cranky Kong is.

Further proof that Baby Donkey Kong is Modern Donkey Kong is that he has a tuft of hair on his head that matches up with Modern DK. Bottom line, Baby Donkey Kong has to be Modern Donkey Kong as a baby.

If we accept Baby Donkey Kong as being Modern Donkey Kong the entire commonly thought of Donkey Kong lineage (Cranky-> Jr.-> Modern) falls apart. Why? Because Donkey Kong Jr. is still young when Mario, likely a young adult, battles him in Donkey Kong Junior. Modern Donkey Kong, who's about Mario's age, couldn't have been born yet if you think he’s the son of Donkey Kong Jr. The traditionally accepted theory (Cranky-> Jr.-> Modern) just doesn’t make any logical sense.

More proof of Baby Donkey Kong being Modern Donkey Kong, and it being impossible for him to be Donkey Kong Jr.’s son, can be understood by taking a look at the larger combined Mario/DK timeline, but that's outside the scope of this piece. Hopefully it's something I'll be able to share at some point in the future.

Unraveling the DK Birth Timeline

(This Feature gets pretty in depth so it's recommended that you open the above image in a new tab to help follow along. Even better if you can put it on a second screen!)

To start, it's worth noting that in Donkey Kong Country 3 a character named Bazaar, a member of the Brothers Bear, mentions that a mirror he has for sale used to belong to Cranky Kong's great grandfather. This is the furthest back we can go on the Donkey Kong family tree but nothing else is known with any certainty before Cranky's birth. It’s just an interesting fact that an ancestor of Cranky's comes up.

Eventually, Cranky Kong is born and at some point marries Wrinkly Kong. Cranky Kong was first introduced to us as Donkey Kong in the original Donkey Kong arcade game, appears as a middle-aged adult for the last time in Donkey Kong (Game Boy) when he starts wearing a necktie, and then is reintroduced as Cranky Kong in Donkey Kong Country where he first appears old. Wrinkly was introduced in Donkey Kong Country 2 and was always seen in games as old.

From here on out I'm going to have to use some estimates on when characters were born compared to Cranky Kong's age. These are estimates I've come up with to help figure out approximate time periods compared to Cranky's life. The key here is they are approximate and unofficial.

While gorilla-based Kongs aren't exactly gorillas I'm using some gorilla physiology to help determine this. For a baseline I'm going off the fact that some gorillas hit maturity by age 15.

To simplify the text I'll also be writing CKxx as a short hand for character births from here on out. CK followed by Cranky Kong's approximate age at the time of said character’s birth.

I'll be going in chronological estimated birth order of DK Family characters from here and some may not make sense at first, but please bear with me as it will all be explained later on. Again, keep in mind these Cranky Age estimates are just estimates and there is wiggle room.

Also note that if a character isn't mentioned in the family tree it's because there is no official confirmed connection at this time.

At CK15 someone, possibly Wrinkly, gives birth to Cranky's first child who we don't know. We can just deduce this character exists. We can call this character Cranky Kong's First Child.

At CK30, Cranky Kong's First Child has, adopts, or gets a stepchild who's an unknown Kong with a possible partner. This Kong is Cranky Kong's First Grandchild.

At CK45, Cranky Kong's First Child has a child who is Cranky Kong's Second Grandchild who we all know as Modern Donkey Kong! Modern Donkey Kong is siblings with the older Cranky Kong's First Grandchild. Mario is also born around this time.

At CK48, Cranky Kong's First Grandchild has, adopts, or gets a stepchild possibly with a partner. This character, who's Cranky Kong's First Great Grandchild, is Diddy Kong.

CK50, Cranky Kong has his second child, possibly with Wrinky, who we know as Donkey Kong Jr. It's also possible that at this same age Cranky Kong has another child, one that may be Donkey Kong Jr.’s twin, Donkey Kong Jr. (II). It could be argued that Donkey Kong Jr. (II) isn't canonical but he appears in Donkey Kong Jr. Math as the second player. It's possible Jr. (II) isn't as adventurous and prefers studying, but that's just a theory if the character is real in the DK universe.

Note: It's entirely possible there are even more Kongs in the Donkey Kong family tree than listed. This just represents the bare minimum required to make sense of things. We have no idea how much monkey business these Kongs were getting into over the years. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just understand I'm not here to teach you about the Neckys and the Zingers.

Explaining This Mess With Evidence

(Again, it's probably a good idea to expand this image for reference.)

Let's start at the top of this family tree I've constructed and work our way down. At the very top we have Cranky Kong and Wrinkly. Now you may have noticed throughout the birth timeline that I said Wrinkly “may” have given birth to Cranky Kong's First Child and, potentially, up to two Jr. characters. This is because of Wrinkly's estimated age; she may not be the mother of some or any of these characters. As far as I can tell no piece of game related media refers to Wrinkly Kong as a mother or grandmother and no characters refer to her as one. The closest we get is Wrinkly saying, “Aren't you going to give your favorite relative a good-bye kiss?” The problem is she says this to Dixie and Kiddy (in Donkey Kong Country 3) who seemingly aren't related to her, but maybe Wrinkly considers them related because Diddy is dating Dixie? No idea.

Because of the lack of info regarding Wrinkly Kong it's entirely possible that Cranky has had children with up to two other female Kongs before settling down with Wrinkly. This is obviously a theory and Wrinkly could be the mother of some or all of Cranky's children, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Wrinkly dies shortly before the events of Donkey Kong 64 and is seen as a ghost in all games thereafter.

Cranky Kong's First Child has to exist as it's the only way to make sense of Baby Donkey Kong (Future Modern Donkey Kong) being about the same age as Mario in Yoshi's Island DS while still having Mario be older than Donkey Kong Jr. Cranky Kong's First Child conceives Modern Donkey Kong, with a partner, before Donkey Kong Jr. is born. This still allows Modern Donkey Kong to be the grandson of Cranky Kong, and for Donkey Kong Jr. to be the son of Cranky Kong but born later. It also explains why Modern Donkey Kong isn't known as Donkey Kong III as he would be if he were the son of Donkey Kong Jr. We don't know anything else about Cranky Kong's First Child.

Donkey Kong Jr. was first seen in the Donkey Kong Junior game. The arcade flyers for the game mention it's about Donkey Kong Jr. rescuing his daddy from Mario. One also states that, “unbeknownst to Little Mario, Donkey Kong has produced an offspring - Donkey Kong Junior!” Simple character explanation. Also worth noting is Donkey Kong Jr. is seen getting older and larger in Super Mario Kart (SNES) and Mario Tennis (Virtual Boy) which provides evidence he’s younger in earlier appearances. He hasn’t been seen much since.

As mentioned, Donkey Kong Jr. (II) really only appears in Donkey Kong Jr. Math. He may not be a canonical character, but if he is, he's likely the twin of Donkey Kong Jr.

To understand why Cranky Kong's First Grandchild must exist, we need to jump ahead and talk about Diddy Kong. Under (Modern) Donkey Kong's info in Super Smash Bros. (N64), it states that Diddy is Modern Donkey Kong's favorite nephew. This familial connection is also mentioned in the Donkey Kong 64 manual. If Diddy is Modern DK's nephew then Modern DK must have a sibling, most certainly somewhat older (Cranky Kong's First Grandchild), if Diddy is seemingly near Modern DK's age but slightly younger.

(As a side note here I need to talk about the Donkey Kong 64 manual entry that describes Diddy as Modern Donkey Kong's nephew because I know some uninformed people will complain about it. In the DK64 manual under Diddy it says, "Donkey's little nephew wannabe." People mistakenly assume this means Diddy wants to be Modern DK's nephew. But this is insane. Nobody has ever said they wish they were someone's nephew. Diddy has just always looked up to Modern Donkey Kong and has wanted to be like him from the start. In the Donkey Kong Country manual under the entry for Diddy Kong it states, "Although he would never admit it, Diddy Kong is a Donkey Kong wannabe." Hopefully this clears up the common misconception regarding Diddy's relationship with Modern Donkey Kong as it's clear he wants to be just like his uncle DK.)

The thing that gets confusing here is that Diddy Kong is not a gorilla-type Kong like everyone else in the Donkey Kong family. Diddy is a monkey-type Kong. There are a number of possibilities that could explain this.

1. Diddy Kong is adopted.

2. Cranky Kong's First Grandchild is a monkey-type Kong and was adopted by Cranky Kong's First Child. Later Cranky Kong's First Grandchild had a son named Diddy.

3.Cranky Kong's First Grandchild is a gorilla-type Kong but married a monkey-type Kong who already had a child who is Diddy.

There are some other mixes of these theories but you get the idea. Somewhere along the way there had to be at least one adoption or cross Kong species marriage to get Diddy Kong to be part of the Donkey Kong family tree. Interspecies Kong relationships are confirmed to happen in the DK universe as I'll explain later, so it's a possibility. Nothing else is known about Cranky Kong's First Grandchild except they must be siblings with Modern Donkey Kong.

Modern Donkey Kong is the next to examine. First appearing in Donkey Kong Country, he's the grandson of Cranky Kong and uncle to Diddy. Modern Donkey Kong definitely has feelings for Candy Kong, though their exact relationship isn't made perfectly clear. Modern DK also sometimes has some sort of feelings for the adult Pauline as seen in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series.

Modern Donkey Kong was born at about the same time as Mario as both are seen as babies in Yoshi's Island DS. Modern DK was also born before Donkey Kong Jr. as a result of this evidence. Modern Donkey Kong is siblings with Cranky Kong's First Grandchild.

Diddy Kong is Cranky Kong's great grandchild and is also the nephew of Modern Donkey Kong. Diddy first appeared in Donkey Kong Country. He and Modern Donkey Kong are best friends. It's possible that Diddy is adopted, one of his monkey-type Kong parents married into the gorilla-type Donkey Kong family, one or more of his parents were adopted, or some combination because he's a monkey-type Kong in this originally gorilla-type Kong family.

Further proof that Diddy is related to the Kong family can be found in Donkey Kong Country Returns. An unlockable image in the game shows a picture of Modern Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong and is titled, “Family Portrait.”

Diddy Kong is also dating Dixie Kong as stated in Donkey Kong Country 2. This is significant because while Diddy is a monkey-type Kong, Dixie has no tail so she's a gorilla-type Kong. Further evidence of Dixie's gorilla-type roots can be seen by looking into Dixie's family which we will do. This proves interspecies Kong dating takes place.

The Other Kong Family Tree

Now that we've made it this far, we might as well complete the other known Kong family tree.

Dixie Kong was first introduced in Donkey Kong Country 2 and appears to be a gorilla-type Kong due to the lack of a tail. She's also been in a relationship with Diddy since slightly before Donkey Kong Country 2.

Tiny Kong is Dixie's younger sister who was introduced in Donkey Kong 64. As her name states, she is tiny. Or I should say was tiny. In the years since her initial introduction Tiny has grown larger than her older sister Dixie. The growth spurt was first seen in Diddy Kong Racing DS and in subsequent game appearances.

Donkey Kong Country 3 makes it clear that Dixie, and as a result Tiny, have a young cousin named Kiddy Kong who first appears in said game. Kiddy may be very young, but he's also super strong.

Chunky Kong was introduced in Donkey Kong 64 as Kiddy's older brother. Chunky is very big, strong, but also very slow.

Because Kiddy is called Dixie's cousin in Donkey Kong Country 3 we can simply deduce that siblings Dixie and Tiny are cousins with Chunky and Kiddy. This means each side's parents must be siblings and as a result those siblings share parents.

It's also worth pointing out that no known Kong in the Dixie family tree has a tail. So all are assumed to be gorilla-type Kongs as there is currently no evidence proving otherwise.

Probably Wrong, But Interesting, Wrinkly Kong Multifamily Theory

There is one more thing I want to return to involving Wrinkly Kong. Recall how at one point in Donkey Kong Country 3 she says, “Aren't you going to give your favorite relative a good-bye kiss?” to Dixie and Kiddy? There is no good explanation for this except for what I said earlier about Wrinkly viewing Dixie–and by extension Kiddy–as family since Dixie is dating Diddy Kong. That said, I've come up with one other possibility.

As previously stated, Wrinkly is never referred to as a mother or grandmother of any type anywhere. However, based on her relative quote there is another possibility. What if Wrinkly Kong didn't birth all, or quite possibly any, of Cranky Kong’s children? Instead it's theoretically possible she, and an unknown partner, gave birth to one of Dixie, Tiny, Chunky, and Kiddy's grandparents and Wrinkly herself is one of their great grandparents. This would make the DKC3 quote make sense in an insane way. Eventually, after possibly birthing this other Kong line, Wrinkly moved on and married Cranky Kong.

It's also possible a sibling or another relative of Wrinkly's spawned the other Kong line. These are just crazy, highly speculative theories that are probably wrong, but I thought it was worth mentioning before closing everything out. There is currently no evidence to fully support Wrinkly's exact genetic connection to either family tree. It's just known that Wrinkly is Cranky Kong's wife.

Conclusion

The Donkey Kong family tree has been a cursed thing riddled with debate for decades. There have always been disagreements and fan theories from various people. I’m not intending to change that, but hopefully I can open people's minds to this more complex possibility that doesn't seem to break anything because I've never seen a Donkey Kong family tree take a game centric deep dive like this.

Many hours of research and deduction went into creating this, so I hope more people see it and take it seriously for future Donkey Kong family tree and Mario/Donkey Kong timeline-related discussions. I truly feel this is the best evidence based look at the Donkey Kong family tree to date. Of course, updates to this family tree will most certainly be needed in the future as new games reveal info and introduce new characters.

Hopefully you've found this useful and interesting. And as always, if there is something I missed or any input you have please reach out to me here in the comments section, on Bluesky, or on the Nintendo World Report Discord Server. Thank you!

Special Thanks to the Super Mario Wiki for being an extremely valuable resource for research and for many images.

Special Thanks to Smashpedia for the image of Donkey Kong's information in Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64.

Special Thanks to UTAGaming on YouTube for having footage of the Donkey Kong Family Portrait from Donkey Kong Country Returns