Naming characters in games

[Spuuky]

Do you name the main character after yourself? Do you leave default names in place? Do you name characters after real people you know, or EoFF members, or celebrities, or random object words?

Specific sub-question: Do you rename TERRA to Terra and LOCKE to Locke?

I name all of my male leads in games Lars, in a longstanding tradition dating back to my first childhood Dragon Warrior playthrough. It's a name that always fits and is cool enough, and works in any 'feel' of game for me. DQ games often only showed 4 characters of the name on combat screens and it always fit there, too.

The rest of my party consists of mostly people I know, especially squad-based games like XCOM. Occasionally some EoFFers slip in (mostly eestlinc and Del Murder) if I run low or have a particularly large squad. I personally am always there as the "second guy" after the main character in games. I'm never a Warrior/Strength-type, and Lars always is. Just tradition! Of course, I don't always use "real" names. I'm usually Spuuky, for instance.

Also, I never rename Final Fantasy characters, and I'm not sure why.

[Del Murder]

I usually name the main character Tmoney or T-Money. For other characters I tend to have a theme. I've used Greek gods as a theme, Simpsons characters, EoFFers, people in my life. Just depends on how many characters I have to name.

[Jinx]

I name them real-life names that seem to fit them, or just things that seem right. Like in FFIX:

Zidane - George, for Curious George (because of the tale)
Vivi - Ghostie, because he's just this black blob with eyes
Steiner - Emo, because he has dark eyeliner
Freya - Minnie, cos mouse

etc etc

[Ayen]

When I was a kid I used to just name the main character after myself and kept the others default. Nowadays when I play a RP I based names on all the fictional characters I made over the year. The character my namesake is based off of has been used in a lot of the recent RPs I've played in. A little redhead with green eyes named Tori Jacobs. So far she's been a Jedi, Starfleet Captain, Dragonborn, Spectre, an undead zombie that kept dying a lot, a DC superhero, a professional wrestler and a video game developer.

I ended up having my whole freaking cast on Star Wars The Old Republic.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I always keep the default names in place whenever possible there is one. The only game in which I use my name is probably Pokemon. My exception to this is when I'll play an RPG with a friend, then we usually come up with silly names that make conversations more amusing, and I think I've only done that with FF VII.

[Denmark]

In Zelda/Pokemon games I'll usually use my real name, or the name "Spim" which I randomly typed into Ocarina of Time one day and really liked the way it looked, so I've been using it for the last 13 or so years in various games, usually on a second playthrough (after using my real name the first time).

In FF games, on my first playthrough I'll use whatever the default names are, changing TERRA to Terra if necessary. On subsequent playthroughs, if I change the names, I'll use a group of names that all go together. For example, on one playthrough of FF6 I used names of Futurama characters (Fry, Leela, etc), trying to pick names that sort of matched the FF6 characters. Sometimes I'm just lazy, though.

[Elskidor]

I never do it. I may have done it a few times when I was much younger, and one time my brother-in-law named Garnet Dickgal when I wasn't looking, but it's usually too distracting for me.

[The Man]

I usually just use the defaults, although I do rename TERRA to Terra etc. I did have one playthrough of FFVI where I used EoFFers' names for all the characters.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I will name all my characters using a common theme on a game like Faster Than Light, I should say. Those would range from the names of my four roommates in college to various characters Arnold Schwarzenegger has played as over the years.

[escobert]

First time through I generally leave them as they are. After that anything goes.

[Aulayna]

I generally don't rename characters except in single play games where you generally control the same character for the entire game and are given some degree of flexibility in creating that character (i.e. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Kingdoms of Amalur, Pokémon etc) Beyond that I just use the default names the game provides. Even in Zelda games I always call Link, Link.

I think the only real exception to this is XCOM where I named everyone after colleagues, friends and forum goers.

[Spuuky]

Here's a follow-up question: what do you guys name factions/organizations/etc that you get to name in games?

I guess some people just might not play games where you can do things like this, but you can name things like your religion in Civilization, or your guild in Etrian Odyssey, or your guild or clan or whatever you call them in WoW, or your army/clan/etc in Total War games.

[Dr Unne]

On a first playthrough I keep the default names if characters have them, to avoid breaking the immersion of the game. After that all bets are off. If there are enough letters, my main character is Bolt van der Huge. Tank characters are always Meat Shield. Last time I re-played FF6 all of the characters had food names. Locke = DONUTZ, Edgar = CARROT, Celes = BAGEL and so on. At some point I thought it was a good idea to name all of my FF7 characters Sephiroth. In Link Between Worlds, I'm playing as Lonk. Also a fan of the name BAGU. My characters in Guild Wars were Florbp and Frazzrocket.

Clan/guild will be something to do with ninjas and/or moose. Capital city in Civ usually ends up "Gutpunch, USA" regardless of nation.

[Shorty]

If it's a character with a name already chosen, I leave it. If all the letters were capitalized, I would fix that trout and fix it good because it would bug me.

If it's a game that asks you to choose your own name, I use Zillah for females and Joey Doyle for males.

[Slothy]

I typically name characters after myself and anyone I know who seems to remind me of that character.

Only exception is XCom really since the soldiers don't really have character. Last play through I did (and haven't finished come to think of it) I named them all after EoFF staff. Lost a lot of Raistlin's.