What do you put in when a game asks you to write a name and why?

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Usually for playable characters, whenever there's a chance to input a name (or any writing of your own) in a game, what do you put and why? Here's a few things I do 

- The classic: write your real name. I usually do this but there's two exceptions that come to mind:
       - When I was playing all Pokémon generations, I would name each consecutive trainer after a shiny I got on the previous one (for example, after playing Fire Red and getting a shiny Onyx, my HG/SS trainer would be named Pyrite, since Johto is the home of the red Gyarados my Emerald trainer would be named Ruby; when I ran out of shinies, I used Erro (as in, error: name not found  ) , Ross (because of Ross' Game Dungeon, pretty much) and Ashley (because of the shiny Roselia I got traded as a kid, that had a dark grey flower)
       - Sometimes I record games in the case I want to make a little YT channel: on those, I just go by Corrupted (which is fun because it makes it look like the file/game is actually corrupted  )

- Naming playable characters after assorted things: good for Pokémon, Sims, Miis... I have a long tradition of silly Pokémon names.

- And when I really run out of ideas:  purposefully stupid names  . Like the name of my Pokemon Mystery Dungeon team (Team Skibidi, only because my playable character was a Skitty) and my latest one for the Sim I use to 100% the game: Princess Pwnage (which I took from a very cheesy article about "gamer names for girls".) I could tell you about my Mother 3 save too, but those are quite inappropiate to share here 
     
So yeah, there's a lot in a name, especially in the virtual world where you can call yourself anything  What are some memorable names that come to mind, either from yourself or others?

[lucky]

Ahhh fun question

If the playable character has a canonical name I'll go with that, like Link in The Legend of Zelda or Chara in Undertale. Sometimes I'll go with my real name or make something up on the spot. Recently I've been using names of other characters I like, I named my Degrees of Lewdity character after Tetsuo from Sweet Pool for example. I haven't been an avid gamer in years so I haven't had to come up with too many names recently though!

[Twigz0n]

As far as I can recall I probably used my real name in the first few Pokémon games that I got. But I distinctly remember when I was 13 I would name my player avatar after an oc I had at the time named Lilac. I thought it was cool to imagine my oc in a video game like Pokemon as it could be a sort of alternative universe storyline for her. I think that was my reasoning behind it anyway.

When I started to play Pokémon mystery dungeon for the first time I remember I’d never use a custom nickname for either my main Pokémon/partner because I thought it was weird that every other character would go by their Pokémon names except for two exceptions. I think it broke my immersion or something lol But when I replay mystery dungeon these days I usually go with my online alias “Twig” and name my partner character something random usually.

[AY38910]

Either THAT soundchip, or plain keysmashing. Sometimes random hexadecimal. Or even Assembly code.
That, or me holding down a key (e.g. "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"), or HTTP errors. Or BSOD ones.

List of some names I've used in games:
* 404
* int10h
* fgfdmydjtskyhtfjdt
* hhhhhhh
* 0x6f7d
* irqlnlessoreq
* ay38910 (duh)

[shapezncolourz]

i usually just use the first letter of my real name ^^; not sure why i don't use my actual name lol

if i have the opportunity to make multiple characters then i'll usually make ocs instead! this is what i've done with peak, i have a scout for every colour (9 total) and they all have their own names :3

[juanp32]

if its a multiplayer game something recognizable and inn the profile mention my other online handels (like minecraft or kol)
else, usually its keysmash bc i SUCK at naming lol

[candycanearter07]

Funny enough, I just answered this on usenet, bbbbutttt

When its a basic player-character setting or filename, I just go with "Candy".

When it's naming multiple characters in JRPGS, or if you have to name more than one, I usually go with a really dumb pun or the first character I think of when looking at the sprite.

[GarbCat]

I'm admittedly very vanilla when it comes to this LOL. In games with nameable party members I always stick to the default, aside from Red XIII in FF7 who I often name "Nanaki," his proper birth-name opposed to the default which was appointed to him by the scientist that experimented on him. Giving Red XIII his name back is one reason why I will never argue against being able to name party members, even if I almost never do it myself, because that moment alone makes me stupid emotional 

And with games with the single player character you name, it's more evenly split between the default "canonical" name, or my own name, being Musical. It really depends on if the player character is supposed to be *you* or if they display enough independent traits to be their own character. So like in Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Dragon Quest, I will name the player character after myself because any personality they have is either crafted by the player roleplaying thru them or is otherwise implied, at best. Games like Famicom Detective Club, Shin Megami Tensei, or Persona, even though those games all try really hard to make you just name the character yourself by providing no default option in-game, I will still just look up what the closest thing to a canon name they have is and use that instead, lol. Fun fact, the closest thing to a name for the FDC protag is Taro Ninten, which showed up in trailers for the 2021 remakes. He literally does not have a decided upon canonical name otherwise so him being named "Ninten" in particular is an extension of and/or callback to the practice of promotional materials for early Nintendo games with customizable names to set the name to "Ninten." It's the same reason that the name of the Mother 1 protagonist is now officially Ninten. neat!

And a fun fact, the current name I use, Muse, was born from a character limitation in naming the player character in *a* Dragon Quest game (I can't quite remember if it was 11 or 3GBC, I played both games around the same time...). It was and usually still always Musical when it comes to these types of games because that was my longest standing username. Then I played one of these Dragon Quest games with their 4 character name limit and I shortened the name to Muse, and after seeing myself being referred to as such repeatedly throughout these very long JRPGs, the name grew on me and I officially adopted it as my name. So I feel like telling people that "Muse" is a shortening of "Musical" could possibly be met with raised eyebrows but like, there is lore behind it it does make sense with context  :