Fun with Naming Characters

I've gone through several phases on theme naming my pokemon. Early on I named them based on what their actual names were (Charmander became Charmer, Nidoran became Nido, Geodude was Geode, etc.) Then I went through a phase where I named all my pokemon out of The Silmarillion's elvish index (Charmander became Anduril, Nidoran became Galvorn, etc.). Now, I just name my pokemon whatever I think sounds cool (Charmander became Vaisheen, Fearow became Skryne, Scyther became Grimmk).

I also confess to naming Zidane and Garnet after myself and my crush at the time, and then trying to convince my best friend that her name was a glitch on the game's end.

edited 28th Oct '10 2:01:23 PM by Wryte

My protagonist names are usually pretty straightforward, although I did go through a period of naming Link "Ganon" or some other Big Bad. My most off-the-wall would probably be a Solo-Character Run of Pokemon Platinum where I named myself and my rival W.Angel and Bob.

My Pokemon teams, however, always get nicknames, my favorite being a Cobras-themed run of Blue with The Pain (Sandslash), The Fear (Alakazam), The End (Snorlax), The Fury (Zapdos), The Sorrow (Starmie), and The Boss (Chansey  ^*

edited 28th Oct '10 2:15:38 PM by ARandomSerf

Only one of my Pokemon is named, I caught a female Snorelax while a news current affairs show was on.

So I named her Gainbloggr.

edited 28th Oct '10 7:55:43 PM by Pentigan

I named Crono and Marle in my first New Game Plus of the DS version of Chrono Trigger after myself and my girlfriend at the time. Several months later after we had broken up, I picked up the game again, opened that file, and went "...Huh. That's...awkward." Haven't felt the urge to play the game since. =/

When I started playing Wild Arms 2 I was very put off by the name of the big guy with the big gun. "Brad." Didn't seem to fit. I changed it to Hrothgar. Now that's a name for a bad ass.

The name I am currently most proud of is my Scyther. Named Zorak. Original, I know...

From Etrian Odyssey III:

Male Ninja: Shiki

Female Hoplite: Meillia. (Dunno)

Male Prince: Welkin

Female Farmer: Alice.

Female Ballista: Rain

Male Zodiac: Kinzo.

Other than that, I usually keep the PC's names normal.

edited 4th Nov '10 9:43:51 AM by AttObl

I love me some crazy names. My Heart Gold character's named 'NEIL' and his rival is 'NATHAN'. Also, my Strange Journey character's named Jayne Cobb.

...Oh dear, I never could resist ludicrous character names. I'm particularly bad when it comes to Bioware RPGs, since my copies have included the following idiots:

- Horatio Shepard, a gaunt, gangly, creepy-looking bald man with a big nose who, while a complete Paragon, is deliberately played as so socially-inept that he's got through two games without noticing any of the various women who are somehow interested in him.

- Cuthbert Cousland, a Jerkass middle-aged knight who looks considerably older than his own parents in the Human Noble origin and managed to get at least two potential party members permanently killed simply by not noticing them before the village they were in got torched.

- In KOTOR, my character is named Thrust Rogerson for some reason.

There's also a blonde, square-jawed Aryan type with a silly moustache in my version of Fallout 3 called Herbert F. Sodville III, but he hasn't managed to be the complete disaster any of the others have been...

...Yet.

edited 5th Nov '10 2:28:33 AM by MinghamSmith

In my current FFVIII game I named Squall "Batman".

It makes EVERYTHING more fun.

Back in the FFVII days, I named Barret "Mr.T". Because you have to at least once.

And in my Legend of Zelda runs, I once named a character "I Say" so other characters would sound like Foghorn Leghorn. And no, I did not get the idea from whichever internet personality it was who mentioned it in his videos. I was really surprised when somebody asked me if it was a reference.

In the Disgaea games, I tend to name my created units after random characters I like in other media. The only real constant is that the thief is always named Parker.

After getting the Yuzu ending in Devil Survivor, I took to naming the protagonist Makoto 'Baka' Itou in a New Game Plus.

In NetHack, I've had quite a bit of fun with this:

• Player character: Wriggle, Palm
• Horse: Hirow, your ass
• Cat: Chen, your pussy, The Game, Longcat
• Dog: your stupid bitch, your stupid dog that won't follow you, Sakuya, Widedog, Advice Dog
• Slime mold: chicken strips LIKE A BOSS, KFC Double Down, random things ending in "You die...--More--"

edited 9th Nov '10 5:52:56 PM by TsundeRay

Well, when I first started up Worms: Reloaded, my team was named the "Badshot Brothers." First game against AI enemies made the name come true.

Japanese Teeth: I didn't name Barret after Mr. T.

^^When I played Devil Survivor, I nicknamed the main character "Drow". I had Drowtales on the mind, for some reason.

Incidentally, when I played Chrono Cross, I named most characters after characters from Drowtales.

Once, in Final Fantasy 9, my little brother renamed Steiner 'Asshole'

One of the Active Time Events is called 'Queen Brahne's Steiner'

Yeah.

edited 9th Nov '10 6:43:52 PM by edvedd

When it comes to games where you have to name the Hero, I usually name him Hiro.

Or occasionally MC Hero if I want to make him a rapper.

I almost always name the female lead Taylor, after my sister. I occasionally name the male lead after myself, but this tends to lead to incest, and besides, "Eric" is too boring to suit most game characters.

Also, my first FFVI playthrough, I named several characters after people I knew: Terra was Taylor, Locke was Eric, Edgar & Sabin were Mike (a friend of mine, and also the name of my brother) and Ike (because it rhymed), and Cyan was Jason, my dad. There may have been a few I've forgotten, too.

Oh, and for my Civilization 5 3 City Challenge, the cities were Ericopolis, Tayloria, and Mikeville, that last named after my brother this time rather than my friend.

edited 9th Nov '10 7:29:09 PM by yinyang107

It seemed odd to me that we got to rename Adelbert Steiner's last name, but not his first. So naturally I was all over that and named him Adelbert Adelbrt.

...Stupid character limits.

Every now and then, I like to name the main character SCIENCE!, or the closest approximation the lettering will allow. It makes conversations amusing.

"What do you think, SCIENCE!?"

"Have you seen SCIENCE!?"

"SCIENCE! cannot stop me!"

In Pokemon, I liked to name the main character and his rival both OAK, so that it would be ridiculously confusing when Oak and the rival started talking to each other at the start of the game.

My recent Premier Ball only playthough of Pokemon XD used "Unzan" as a name. Now that I'm finished when I get my video capture device back (Lent it out to someone to digitize a bunch of VHS tapes) I'm going to do a Let's Play of Leaf Green as "Sanae".

The most creative I got was with Final Fantasy I Advance's party naming feature, which goes like this:

Fighter: Lord Yupa

Black Mage: Zant

Red Mage: Rassilon

Thief: Garrett

Those who can guess all the references gets crackers, and maybe even some white rice.

edited 11th Nov '10 7:04:44 AM by ThatOtherGriffin

I name my Pokemon after my Original Character or things that sound cool in concept, eg. Shroudlure for a (Female) Mightyena, Ocean Reign for (male) Garastomp and Azealoth for (female) Gyrados. I'm going to name my character in another MMO after Gender Bender gods.

edited 11th Nov '10 4:46:56 PM by sabrina_diamond

I nicknamed my Porygon-Z "Vista."

edited 11th Nov '10 10:18:26 PM by SpellBlade

So I got a copy of Dragon Age a short time ago and created a Dwarf Noble named Ironbeard. Sadly, the copy froze up and I had to return it. I got 3D Dot Game Heroes instead and my new character?

A dwarf named Ironbeard. NEVER FORGET.