I’ve never heard that theory before, but it sounds really interesting 
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None of these are the right name.
We don’t know the name of the Doctor!!!
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Oh yes, we do!
His name is Bob.
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The Doctor only ever introduces himself as the Doctor in the TV show (with one notable exception but that is written not verbal) and it is other characters who refer to him as Doctor Who (the main on of which is AI and we all know how notoriously unreliable AI is).
Surely we should, in this day and age, be respecting the name the Doctor chooses for themselves…
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It mainly comes from The Mind Robber, which hints a few times that the Doctor is a fictional character - various other “clues” include the repeated instances of fourth wall breaks throughout the show’s history, the fact that the Doctor’s backstory shifts repeatedly throughout the show, the “Doctor Who” name debate, and the observation that various aspects of the character are contradictory or don’t always make sense.
It’s not a theory that I see many people discuss, but I’ve always liked it 
It is also pretty much the only one that can account for all the different information we have about the Doctor’s history, which appeals to the lore nerd in me.
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He definitely does call himself “Doctor Who” at least once:
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I want to point out that most speculation that treats their birth name as if it’s somehow their true and real name, as opposed to the one they’ve gone by for thousands of years, feels a lot like deadnaming to me
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No, I think you’ll find his name is Basil.
Doctor Basil Disco.
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Oh yeah him. I don’t count him as a Doctor anyway. He’s far too grumpy.
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I feel like a lot of people like myself that grew up with new who were so against him being called Doctor Who and I used to always correct people but since Capaldi I’ve used both 
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Yeah as a teenager I raged against it even though I also watched classic ??? now I’m an adult and I don’t care lmao
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I call them the Doctor like 90% of the time, but I do call them Mr Dr Who when I feel like being silly, so 
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Slartibartfast.
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Let’s listen to the Doctor’s best friend:
BILL: Yeah, but he’s called the Doctor, so
MISSY: He says, I’m the Doctor, and they say, Doctor who? See, I’m cutting to the chase, baby. I’m streamlining. I’m saving us actual minutes.
BILL: Yeah, okay, whatever.
MISSY: Also it’s his real name.
BILL: It’s what?
When talking to someone who hasn’t seen the show I find it just to be an easier shorthand to go with calling them Doctor Who - in my experience the “Not We” simply don’t care and lose interest when giving them that explanation 
I am past the “hurdle” of insisting that they are called the Doctor 
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I prefer to call them thete. You know, like their old school friend Drax 
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I use both but Doctor Who is the funnier one so I picked that
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That’s the best Explanation! 
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Usually ‘the Doctor’, sometimes ‘Doctor Who’ (which is funnier, we have to admit that).
Follow up question for the non-native English speakers: do you translate the word ‘Doctor’ when you’re talking about them in your native language? Or do you keep it in English, maybe saying it with a stronger accent so it doesn’t feel disconnected from the rest of the sentence? I do both 
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I usually don’t translate that Name (but to be fair in German ‘Doctor’ and ‘Doktor’ are almost one and the same very much )
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