Quote Originally Posted by Metastachydium View Post
Yes, that last bit makes it a slight bit less stupid than the usual implementation of the whole "what if X was named after Y" equine faeces, but only a very slight bit. You see, doctor doesn't mean 'healer'. It means 'teacher'. It comes from a perfectly regular second conjugation Latin verb. For medical doctors to be named after the Doctor, he would have had to
1. manipulate the development of Indo-European languages thoroughly enough that doceo becomes a thing in Latin;
2. manipulate the development of Indo-European languages thoroughly enough that -tor becomes a thing in Latin, and a very productive suffix to boot;
3. make sure Latin survives as the European lingua franca for long enough;
4. make sure it survives as a supranational language of science for longer yet;
5. make sure doctor becomes a degree at early European universities;
6. make sure medicine is a field one can become a doctor in;
7. make sure this custom survives throughout the ages; and
8. make sure that without anything to qualify it further, the word doctor becomes primarily associated with medical professionals rather than theologians or jurists in colloquial use.

And even then, doctors are not so much named after him as they unwittingly bear the same name because of a millenia long gratuitous ego trip. And that's before him needing to ensure that society stays male-dominated throughout this period, lest doctrix being a commonly used title mess up his oh-so-clever plan.

(Parenthetical fun fact: without anything to qualify it further, perhaps the most common meaning of magister in Latin was also 'teacher'.)
Given the universal translator aspect of the TARDIS I imagine it isn't literally/phonetically "the Doctor"