I once named a kobold meant to be a throwaway NPC “Mint.” I panicked. He ended up following the party as a member for the rest of the game.

Talk with your players if someone’s unhappy. Don’t be afraid to go meta to talk about things that are causing problems, including for yourself. Seriously, communication can solve so many problems. I was able to stop a player from needing to leave the game by cutting a subplot that was really upsetting him, and was able to reassure another player twice about some things that were triggering them.