What's Your Default Name For Things?

[Miko]

You know how it is, sometimes games have us naming our own characters, pets, airships, towns, islands, etc.... As one does.

So, do you have a default name you usually name your characters and/or things in video games? And do you usually keep the already default name that's been preset or do you change it whenever applicable?


Or maybe you don't have a default name and it changes all the time! Let us knooooooow down below!

 

[Six]

I definitely keep the names already suggested in FF games. Unless we're talking Sims... I could go on and on and on about my names for males, females, pets, surnames..-- I... I'm okay.

I do prefer presets in games that actually have them, though, because that is their name. So that definitely has my personal preference.

 

[Miko]

Yeah, I also usually keep the pre-set names, it really is their name, etc. I have a single exception for Chrono Trigger that stems back from childhood though. There was some inside story between my brother & uncle where they named Robo 'Slepl' & the Epoch the 'Ree' - which I think the Ree is a cute name for a ship, lol, but maybe I just feel that way because it's been like that for so long.

For the longest time if I ever had to name a town/city/ location I had always chose the name 'Llavayne'. I think it was the Gamecube Animal Crossing that I was looking for names online to name the town and I settled down on that one for whatever reason. It stuck for the longest time & I used it a lot, like for AC New Leaf & City Folk, even a few Harvest Moon games, but these last few years I hadn't been using it. I think my Animal Crossing NH file I changed the town name to something else, and my Stardew Valley game too.

Then of course the games where the main character is supposed to be you, like in Pokemon, my characters all get named Miko.

I definitely keep the names already suggested in FF games. Unless we're talking Sims... I could go on and on and on about my names for males, females, pets, surnames..-- I... I'm okay.

Well go on then!

 

[Bambi]

I keep the default names for final fantasy, it really annoys me when i have to choose names for stuff though because suddenly i realise ive never heard a single name in my entire life and can't think of a single thing. Whenever I'm forced i just go for Howl (howls moving castle/my cat) for online stuff I've always defaulted to Bambi. Its not a name i would EVER choose if i were choosing a name these days, but like, it's been my online name for so long i cant choose anything else now.

 

[Belle T]

For games where the character(s) have their own names, I tend to keep them as is. The original Secret of Mana was a bit of a headache in this regard, because the characters have their own names and backstories, but they still ask you to put them in yourself anyway, without even giving you their official names as a suggestion. So when I played it, I had to look up the character names online.

Otherwise, if the game expects me to name the character myself, I usually just go with my first name... even if the character is a male.

 

[Dionysos]

This sort of thing only really worked for games that either didn't have much of a narrative (or the things you could name were not the main cast), or didn't have voice acting.

Some games really do benefit from the feature. I mean Pokemon really requires it. I renamed all of my team in those games, but I didn't fall upon any particular names that recurred or anything. I just named them with names that came to me at the time. Hence Blastoise became Mr. Thud, and so on.

Same with No Man's Sky. I'd discover a new planet, name the planet, and name all the flora and fauna I could discover. But I didn't have a set of names that I've used elsewhere or anything. I think I just named a planet after Paddy McGee and named the beasties things like "Yellow Dog" and "Empire Staters" or something.

That sort of thing doesn't interfere with any plot or characters.

In Final Fantasy, the mirages in World of Final Fantasy were also safe to rename without interfering with the canon, etc.

Final Fantasy I was a bit different, in that the four heroes were all blank templates, with no names and no personalities. And thinking about that game, I guess I did once have a set of names I used to use in a few games. Argor, Mayton, Lulo and I must have had a fourth but I cannot recall it. I think these names originated in original characters I made for WWE games (pretty much the only reason I ever bought the WWE games back in the day was for the creative modes). I don't think I've used these names in over ten years though...

As for games with voice acting, FFX is an example where I think the game suffers a bit when they attempt to combine that with custom names. FFX got a bit awkward having characters incapable of referring to Tidus by name and having to instead resort to 'Son of Jecht', etc, just in case the player had changed Tidus' name to Jimmy or something.

I always preferred to keep the original character names for Final Fantasy, voice or no voice. The exception for me was not using the name Dagger for Garnet's alias when I first played the game. Instead I changed the name back to Garnet.... Which narratively (since it was meant to be an alias, and not her real name) made no sense at all, and that was my kid brain being silly. It also ruins the pun in the dramatic reveal at the very end of the game.