History Main / CanonName

* Similar to ''TheElderScrolls'' above, ''Fallout'' has the Vault Dweller, ''Fallout 2'' follows the Chosen One, and ''Fallout 3'' introduces the Lonely Wanderer.

** ''FinalFantasyIII'' allowed the player to name all four characters. The official manga serialization gave them the names Muuchi, Doug, J. Bowie, and Melfi. And then the DS remake gave them four different names.

** The remakes of G/S/C [[DisContinuity establish Gold's real name as Ethan,]] which was heavily disputed. The new female character (that replaced Kris) was named Lyra, though many fans refer to Lyra by her Japanese name (Kotone) to distinguish her from her anime counterpart. Silver didn't receive a new name per-say, but his default name was changed from 'Silver' to 'Soul.'

* Thanks to the [[MortalKombat9 upcoming]] ''MortalKombat'', we ''finally'' have names for the [[LegacyCharacter Sub-Zero Bros.]]: the elder one (the brother that killed Scorpion, then was killed by Scorpion after the first game, and descended into the Netherrealm to become Noob Saibot) is Bi-Han, while his younger brother (the one who took his place from ''[=MK2=]'' onward) is Kuai Liang.

* Subverted in ''.hack'' series, as you could rename your main character in first games and you could load data from them to G.U.-serie and it would change [[spoiler:name of the last boss to your name in first games]]

** The hero of ''DragonQuestIII'' is known as [[spoiler:Loto (Erdrick in some translations)]]. Specifically a title given to the hero at the end of the game.

** The ''DragonQuestV'' lets you choose the name of both the hero and his children, and while hero doesn't have a canon name his children do: Parry and Madchen.

** The hero of the original ''[[SuikodenI Suikoden]]'' is named "Tir [=McDohl=]" in the novels and radio drama.

** The hero of ''{{Suikoden II}}'' is named Riou in the novelization and audio drama, and Tao in a manga.

** Technically, this is true only of the games from ''Link to the Past'' onward. The first two games only allow you to name your saved game, not the character himself. The first two games don't even refer to the character by name in any of the dialogue except at the very end of each, when Princess Zelda addresses him as Link regardless of what name you've input.
* Until recently, the male hero of the ''HarvestMoon'' series (known by the fandom as "Jack") was named in exactly one game: The [[DisContinuity mostly ignored]] ''Puzzle De Harvest Moon''. There his name is clearly listed as "Pete". Like the game itself, this is ignored by the fandom. Likewise, the female protagonist were called, alternately, Jill or Claire (though the former mostly referred to the brown-haired girl from ''Another Wonderful Life''). WordOfGod gave them the canon names of "Claire" [the blonde] and Pony [brunette. HM heroes have had all default names since ''RuneFactory''.
*** Her name was actually spelled [[{{SpellMyNameWithAnS}} Clayre]].

** ''Island of Happiness,'' for instance, names the male and female protagonists Mark and Chelsea, respectively
*** Ironically, you can't use "Chelsea" as your character's name, since you only get six character slots.

* The hero of ''EarthboundZero'' is named Ninten, a name that's not even specified in the Japanese version's manual.

* You aren't given any default names for the heroes of ''{{Secret of Mana}}'', but the Japanese instruction manual calls them Randi, Purim and Popoie. Interesting in that nobody is really sure what gave them the idea to use those names in the Enclosed Instruction Book. Some say that it was from a magazine previewing the game.
* The official name of the hero in the ''QuestForGlory'' series is apparently Devon Aidendale, although in the game he is named by the player, and he is identified in the game onlyby titles, such as Hero of Speilburg, Prince of Shapier, etc., or "unknown hero" if you don't give him a name.

** In a somewhat straighter example, the main character of ''ShinMegamiTenseiIf'' wasn't even given a set ''gender'', much less a name. The female version of the character appears in ''Persona 1'' and ''{{Persona 2}}'', however, with the name Tamaki Uchida, and in ''P1'' she talks openly about the events of ''If'', establishing herself as the canon hero of that game.

* The Opinion Leader of ''{{Ogre Battle}}: March of the Black Queen'', whose name and gender are decided by the player at the start of the game, appears as two distinct characters in ''Ogre Battle 64''. The male version is named Destin Faroda, while the female version is named Europea Rheda.
* A non-RPG example: Light and Pastel from the ''{{Twinbee}}'' franchise were originally unnamed when they first appeared in ''Deta na! Twinbee''; their names were first used in the ''Twinbee Paradise'' radio drama and then canonized in ''Twinbee Yahoo!''.

** ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' generally uses the name of the hero's [[spoiler:original identity, Revan]] to refer to him, leading to a YouShouldKnowThisAlready situation in later games.

** Ganondorf's surname is given as Dragmire in the manual for Link to the Past, but isn't mentioned anywhere else.

* Pretty much every ''StarWars'' game that allows the player to create the PC gives them at least an official gender (and species where applicable). The Exile from ''KOTOR 2'' is female, [[spoiler:Revan]] from 'KOTOR 1'' is male, Jaden Korr from ''Jedi Academy'' is a male human, and so on. The {{AFGNCAAP}} hero of ''X-Wing'' is revealed in a novella included with the Limited Edition to be Keyan Farlander, a human male from Agamar. The one from ''TIE Fighter'' is Maarek Stele, and he pops up very sporadically in other ExpandedUniverse material.

** ''FinalFantasyIII'' allowed the player to name all four characters. The official manga serialization gave them the names Muuchi, Doug, J. Bowie, and Melfi.

** It is worth noting that in the [[PokemonSpecial most popular manga adaption]], the 'game name' method was retained. For example, the manga counterparts of aforementioned Brendan and May are Ruby and Sapphire, and Lucas, Barry, and Dawn are Dia(mond), Pearl, and Platina (from Platinum, the third game).

* In ''Crusader of Centy'', you name the main character at the start of the game, but the manual identifies him as Corona.

* Pretty much every ''StarWars'' game that allows the player to create the PC gives them at least an official gender (and species where applicable). The Exile from ''KOTOR 2'' is female, Jaden Korr from ''Jedi Apprentice'' is a male human, and so on. The {{AFGNCAAP}} hero of ''X-Wing'' is revealed in a novella included with the Limited Edition to be Keyan Farlander, a human male from Agamar. The one from ''TIE Fighter'' is Maarek Stele, and he pops up very sporadically in other ExpandedUniverse material.

** Done again in ''SwordOfMana'', with the boy being Matt (or Duke in Japan) and the girl Rose (or Elena in Japan). But at least Popoi has an item named after him. Don't know if they've actually been seen yet.
*** I cannot find any evidence of the names being "Matt", "Duke", "Rose", or "Elena". When I did a Google search, this exact page was all that came up. I'm fairly sure you made this up, because as far as I know (and there ''is'' evidence to back this up), their canon names are Sumo (boy) and Fuji (girl).
**** Found the references (to Matt & Rose). An old [[{{Novelization}} fan]]-[[ScriptFic script]] by some guy named JM Stalker. Found [[http://www.rpgamer.com/games/sd/ffa/ffainfo.html here]]. Don't know quite how old it is but I once wrote an {{MST}} for it ''back in 1998''. Though I ''would'' like to see the evidence the previous troper cited, considering that in the [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/game/563272.html Translation Differences FAQ]] the original names listed there were "HIIROO" (boy) and "HIROIN" (girl).

** The remakes of G/S/C [[Discontinuity establish Gold's real name as Ethan.]] The new female character (that replaced Kris) was named Lyra, though many fans refer to Lyra by her Japanese name (Kotone) to distinguish her from her anime counterpart. Silver didn't receive a new name per-say, but his default name was changed from 'Silver' to 'Soul.'

** The remakes of G/S/C establish Gold's real name as Ethan. The new female character (that replaced Kris) was named Lyra, though many fans refer to Lyra by her Japanese name (Kotone) to distinguish her from her anime counterpart. Silver didn't receive a new name per-say, but his default name was changed from 'Silver' to 'Soul.'

** In the [[PokemonSpecial most popular manga adaption]], the 'game name' method was retained. For example, the manga counterparts of aforementioned Brendan and May are Ruby and Sapphire, and Lucas, Barry, and Dawn are Dia(mond), Pearl, and Platina (from Platinum, the third game).

*The hero from the first ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' game is officially named Red, and his rival is Blue. Both names are revealed when you fight them in ''Gold/Silver''.
** Same thing goes for Gold and Silver—the hero is Gold, the rival is Silver, and the heroine (from the UpdatedRerelease) is Kris. Gold and Silver actually use Red as the name of the BonusBoss, who is meant to represent the original protagonist. This ended around Ruby/Sapphire, though, when the heroes got "canon" names—the RSE hero is Brendan, and the RSE heroine is May (TheRival is whichever character the player isn't). Similarly, Diamond and Pearl have Dawn and Lucas.
*** And, because the fourth-gen games have two playable characters and a rival, we end up with Dawn, Lucas and Barry (who was not officially named until his anime debut.) The heroine in the remakes of the original games is called Leaf.
** Speaking of G/S/C, the remakes establish Gold's real name as Ethan. The new female character (that replaced Kris) was named Lyra, though many fans refer to Lyra by her Japanese name (Kotone) to distinguish her from her anime counterpart.