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How do you name your characters?

Mostly I just use my own name but I can't help but feel that the name is out of place. Like a medieval story and then a chinese name just appears.

Do you guys use lore-friendly name or just whatever?

Basically this is how it feels.

Tend to always go with the given name, but when I can't I think that I'm going to go with a lore-friendly name from now on (having the NPC in P4G use my name felt really out of place).

When I start P5 I've decided to go with Hiro. Not sure about the surname yet, may go with something alliterated as it always has a nice sound (Hanamura, Hiyagi), though calling him Shima does have an appealing awfulness to it lol.
 
I usually use my real name, except in Elder Scrolls games, where I try to pick something lore friendly, or MMOs, where I try to pick something catchy and memorable.
 
When I first started Skyrim back in 2011 I had zero clue about the Elder Scrolls lore, so I named my Nord guy Wiglaf Stark. I figured 'Beowulf is pretty Nordic, right??". The Stark thing because GoT had just started and I was really into the Stark family back then. Years later and after seeing a bunch of Nords in Skyrim and ESO I would've named him something like Alis Wolf-born or something like that. I noticed Nords have names after physical traits like Strong-Arm, Wide-Arms, Whitemane, also ancestral names like Battle-born, Head-masher, Darkdawn, etc.

In other, more story driven RPGs, I typically go default.
 
I follow kinda this "priority list" for naming characters.
If there's a default name, I use that.
If the character is supposed to be "me" and my name would fit the setting's naming conventions, then I use my name.
If the character is not me or my name wouldn't fit the naming conventions, then I try to come up with a name that would fit them. Sometimes I use name generators for this, but generally when I do that I get a name I like and then try to modify it to make it my own. ("Aranjah", my vanilla WoW character's name, came from me doing this.)
 
I always feel very uninspired at character naming time. When I go to reload an old Souls or Bethesda save I usually have an "oh yeah, why did I do that?" moment when I see the name.

That said, my Grim Dawn character is named Grimothy Dawnson, which I'm pretty pleased with.
 
Usually funny names that still fit within the context of the game. For example I chose Joe Chill in Persona 5 because he looked like a chill guy and even though I didn't know it at the time but it also fit with Joker.
 
I don't particularly care so I usually call them after what ever is on my table
like say there's some ketchup... I may call one Charakter Ketchup and another one Heinz....
For MMORPG I usually stick to Shampoos and cosmetics... like I call my Elves something like "Loreal" or "Nivea". Had an Orc once named Oil of Olaz.
Sometimes I also just call them whatever the characters in my last game where called...

I wish all games just had a randomizer/don't care button
 
Same way every single time.

First name Shizuru (based on the psycho lesbian rapist from Mai Hime) and with my favorite ship for her (Mai) last name so it completes the ship.

Shizuru Tokiha. Bonus if they got red hair.

Don't really play games where you would make or name a man but not have a choice for a woman, the few times I do I just name them the same or Xavier Stargleam.
 
If the game has a random name generator .. just go through a few tries before something comes up that I like. If not, I just name it after myself unless there's a 'canon' name like Tidus.
 
Depends on the game, I try to go for something that sounds like it fits within the world/setting.

Stiler
Orion
Baelor
etc are some of my common names.
 
I always name my character Poo. Always. If there are other characters I tend to name them after my wife and daughter and maybe some friends. Fuck trying to be lore friendly.
 
For whatever reason I name my first character in every souls game Brandt. Every time I would make him a warrior with a claymore. It helped make the games feel more like a continuous journey. The name is inspired by a weapon in Demon's Souls.
 
I used to spend like 5 years making up some cool sounding names using Spanish words to make portmanteaus and what not but nowadays all my characters are pretty much just "Slick" or "[name] the Slick."
In games where character names are more akin to your username, I use whatever the closest variation of slickbutter that is still available.
 
If there's a default, I usually go with that. For games that ask you to create a name, I usually go with a character from a series I like, many of which have been named after Dragonlance characters.
 
I use the default name, whenever applicable. It feels like the most authentic option to me, and I do not like to inject myself into the game that way, because I find that it detracts from my escapism.

When there is no default option, I tend to go for puns. Those range from the highly derivative, such as the moniker of my avatar: Vagner Rach (obvious), to the multiple steps to get there ones, such as Uhk, Greatest of the Ist (origin: masochist).
 
Take a part of my name, and then type in random letters, keeping it as pronounce-able as I can.

For example, if my name is Jonathan Joestar,
it's not
, I would make characters named Jonio, Jonis, etc...
 
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