Fun with Naming Characters

What kinds of wacky stuff have you done with the convention of naming the player characters and stuff?

I tend to name everyone after me, even if they're male, or after members of The Protomen.

I gave my Rival in Soul Silver the roundabout name of "Dieb." German lessons, don'cha'know.

Ever since I the Red and Blue days, I've always used the name Blue, even though I had Red version, and long afterwards I tended to use it for everything Pokemon related.

Because, despite Red being his official name, I've always thought Blue sounded less "hip" and more... I dunno... heroic.

I eventually started using the name Black a few years ago, when I started using that for every game that allowed naming that I would play instead.

I named my rival in Heart Gold "Metal" for some reason cause I didn't feel like using Soul or Silver.

Named my Pokemon after other things in video games, like my Mareep became Ramuh and Garyados became Leviathan.

I theme my Pokémon names. Last playthrough I did musicians with one-hit wonders in the 80s.

In most RPGs I stick to the default names, though.

Final Fantasy 7:

Cloud - SupaSayan(I was young ^^)

Barrett - Mr.T

Red XIII - Nanaki

edited 26th Oct '10 8:30:18 AM by PsychoFreaX

I like naming the hero and the rival Jackash and Ashole, respectively.

In Pokemon, of course.

I usually tend to stick with the default names - the closest I get to really having fun is naming them after characters from other RPGs. I named everyone in FFIII after myself and my friends though because it just seemed to fit thematically.

I had this friend once who went completely off the deep end with FFVII and VIII...This was years ago so I don't remember all of them, but he did name Cloud "Q-ZAR" and Aeris "PODBUTT," which made the final battle with Sephiroth when Cloud declares that this light is PODBUTT absolutely hilarious. Griever in FFVIII became POOHEAD, inevitably leading to "I shall junction myself...unto POOHEAD!"

Yeah.

In my earliest gaming years, I tended to name a lot of characters "Conan", "Merlin" or other such things, which clearly shows that I was incredibly creative as a child.

Later when I became a manga/anime-fan, I used names of, well, manga-characters. There were quite a lot of JRPG heroes named 'Ranma' back then (as it was my favorite manga).

While I abandoned these monotonous "naming schemes", sometimes I still use names of manga/anime-characters (like my Fallout 2 character 'Rena').

My father wasn't very creative with names either. In single-character games, he gave the PC either his own name or (in fantasy games) called him "Sir Fred". While I can't quite remember the names he gave his characters in games with adventurer parties, I can recall that he named a female elven mage in a Might & Magic game (the fourth or fifth one, I think, or even both if he combined the games) "Merlina". Also one of the characters (mostly a human fighter-type) has always the aforementioned "own first name/Sir Fred" scheme. Yeah, there were quite a lot of WRPG heroes named "Holger" or "Sir Fred" back then...

When playing through Metal Max Returns, I went with a "mythological creature" Theme Naming for the tanks, with the exception of the last two - The Red Wolf I left with its default name, out of respect for the guy who gave it to me (not going to say any more so as to avoid spoilers), and the Whitemuu, I gave the name MetalMax just 'cause (stupid 8 character name limit!).

As a kid, I named my Pokemon after close friends and the Super Mario Bros.

Last year, when a friend made a file on A Link To The Past to help me out, he named it "HELP". So, we got great lines of dialogue that made everyone sound like they needed assistance, like "Yes, it was HELP who helped me escape from the dungeon!" or "HELP, it is I, Sahasrahla."

Or in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, when playing Horse, my brother would change the word to something like "Jerk" or "Idiot" so the loser would get a nice "You are a JERK"-type message.

edited 26th Oct '10 2:40:16 PM by DrFurball

In most games, I just use the default names.

In Pokemon, I never nickname my Pokemon, but due to finding amusement in the "GRN Apricorn" item in Heartgold, I tried to name my Rival GRN Apricorn. It didn't fit, though.

I also named the Diamond/Pearl rival Satan due to his hair.

With high scores ad otherwise that only allow initials, I usually type in DOA... I guess I thought it made me look cool at one point.

I usually go with Warlord if I need some sort of title on a single player game.

If I expect to go multiplayer, though, I'll pick the much more accurate to my abilities title Punching Bag.

The most fun I had with titles is in the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance series. (Advance and A2.) When you named your clan, I always named it Clan Awesome. It made my group sound quite confident in cutscenes. "You're dealing with Clan Awesome."

Naming myself, I use my IRL name the first time and whatever I want in later playthroughs.

Naming Pokemon, I do whatever I want, as long as the name is connected to what it is or memories I have of the Pokemon.

^ I like the Qwilfish avatar :)

I usually stick with defaults as well. I do tend to name characters after characters I've played in RP Gs. In Pokemon games my primary battle team was named after the elementals from Secret of Mana and I had a squad of Eevees named after gods.

I leave the defaults too, although in Pokemon games I name the trainer after myself.

In non-voiced games, I usually name myself "I Say" simply because it's awesome to have everyone talk like Foghorn Leghorn.

In voiced games, however, I usually name my character after something to help me distinguish save files.

The Legend Of Zelda: "Fred" (from my first name) in my first playthrough, "Link" in the second one.

Disgaea: I try something referring to the character's class; I sometimes change the name when reincarnating the guys. However, I always keep the default names for named characters.

edited 28th Oct '10 12:36:37 AM by Medinoc

Unless I come up with something really fun, I usually name my flying-type Pokemon after the cast of Topgun. When I caught too many flying-types in Heart Gold and ran out of those guys, I started culling names from Hot Shots.

When making a character for an RPG, I will inevitably sit there like a complete frigging idiot for about 30 minutes trying to come up with a name. One time the randomizer eventually gave me the rather unfortunate "Peiis". Somehow.

Once I went through Ocarina of Time using a name generated by holding up-right, closing my eyes, and hitting A six times. I remember the exact random alphanumeric sequence that popped out to this day.

edited 28th Oct '10 12:41:39 AM by Pykrete

In Jade Empire, there is a scene where you confront Emperor Sun Hai. One of the dialogue options is "I am [character's name], and you are about to be humbled." (All of the dialogue options at that point involve stating your name, but that's the most aggressive.

JE's character naming screen allows you to select punctuation, including commas. I named a character "yo' daddy, bitch" specifically for that one scene.

It was worth it.

Red XIII - Nanaki

For some reason, this has always been too much fun.

"Nanaki's name is... Nanaki?!"

HAHAHAHAHA. XD

I named a few character "AAAAA" and stuff so they were screaming.

I normally go with the default names, occasionally straying into robot masters because I can. if there's no default name I always go with venort, my internet alias. only time I've ever strayed from this naming convention was the original shining force, as the hero looks like a cross between cd-i link and ryu. the name I chose: rynku.

One time when I played Final Fantasy VI, I named Terra "Aerith", Locke "Zidane", Edgar "Edge", Sabin "Zell", Cyan "Auron", Gau "Laure" (I couldn't think of a good Final Fantasy name, so I made a name up. Maybe I should have called him "Guy"), Celes "Cait", Setzer "Sepher" (from Sephiroth), Shadow "Coral", Strago "Tellah", Relm "Yuffie", Mog "Sorbet", Umaro "Kimahr", and Gogo "Bartz".