Tetsuya Nomura's Final Fantasies tend to be more modern and sci-fi than the medieval styles of the other character designers such as Akihiro Yoshida and Toshiyuki Itahana. And as such, he tends to give his main characters names related to natural elements such as the sky, the land, and the sea; the central main character always has the sky-based name.

And unlike the others, "Lightning" is an alias, not her real name.