Sim Names «123...Next Go

UnseenHorizon

I'm interested to see what kind of names people give their Sims and their thought process.

I tend to choose fairly basic names but throw in some unusual ones occasionally (like when I called a male Sim "Phoenix" one time)

The most interesting name so far in my current legacy is "Lynette" which I like because I can abbreviate it to Lynn.

So what kind of names do you come up with?

Mikezumi

I use a different naming theme for each save and I generally use Behind the Name although I have been known to search for rocks, stars, animals, plants, etc. for inspiration.

UnseenHorizon

Mikezumi wrote: »

I use a different naming theme for each save and I generally use Behind the Name although I have been known to search for rocks, stars, animals, plants, etc. for inspiration.

I've used gem stones as a naming theme for my last save

Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst and Topaz for my girls if I remember correctly

Odonata68

Unless I'm making an already existing character (Lara Croft) for example, I use the randomize button for names. I make the sim first, then I press randomize until I find something that seems to fit the sim.

UnseenHorizon

The randomise name option really helps with creating townie characters; it would take forever to try and think of names for unimportant characters.

CravenLestat

Will admit come up with original first names and sometimes hit the randomized dice in Create A Sim to get a last name and sometimes am pleasantly surprised and love it.Even random EA first names are good,do not underestimate the power of name generation.

Also keep hitting random till you get a first name you like,remember it,then hit random till you get a last name that flows with it and type in your first name you remembered.

puzzlezaddict

I have a few names that I'll recycle from one save to the next. Some of them I just like, and others I use for a specific reason usually having to do with my plans for that particular sim. I normally decide what career and/or skills a sim will pursue at birth, so the name is part of the overall theme of that sim's life.

A few examples: Bianca for painter, Cynthia and Victoria for writers, Dara for an inventor, etc. (If a female sim will have a bunch of kids and therefore wouldn't work much in a rabbithole career, at least for a while, she tends to be self-employed instead.) I also like Alex for a fisherman and Jerry for a sculptor.

For some reason, my 5-Star Chef is usually named Susan. I don't know why, it just kind of stuck.

Names for sims with rabbithole careers can vary, especially when they have hobbies first, but a sim who'll be an International Super Spy is always Michael, and one who'll wind up a Master Thief is always Neal. On a completely unrelated note, when I can't sleep sometimes I consume a gigantic pile of trash TV.

Odonata68

CravenLestat wrote: »

Also keep hitting random till you get a first name you like,remember it,then hit random till you get a last name that flows with it and type in your first name you remembered.

This is exactly what I do!

AdelineRobbins

I usually just random generate names from the internet. Or use names I really like, such as Ophelia or Daphne, if I happen to actually think of one. The exception being my Faye family, the mermaids of Isla Paradiso. I was going for both a name and a thing, so sometimes they end up sounding a bit odd. The current two mermaids of the family are Butterfly and her daughter, Glint. Glint was named after a dragon from Guild Wars, because her parents both have blue hair, the dragon was blue, and I always planned on giving her a blue tail, as well. Her non-mermaid sister is Rose, a little more normal sounding. I think I might reserve my extra weird names for the mermaids. I want them to be really colorful, so may as well give them unique names, too. I keep them all saved in a word document when I think of one.

TinySpaceFox

I tend to only name my Sims after I’m finished creating them (this includes choosing their clothes and overall colour scheme). But even then, I usually only choose their first name. As for their last name, I hit the randomise button until a nice name that goes with their first name (and their ethnicity) comes up.

The only time I’ve ever chosen a last name for one of my Sims was with Martin (the Sim in my avatar). When I first made him, I didn’t really care about ethnicity and such, and I went with the surname Rubio (generated by the game). But I decided after a while that he was going to be Irish. I looked up the surname Rubio and saw it was Spanish, so I went and looked up Irish surnames to find one that might go well with the first name Martin. I settled on “Flannagan” which means “red” - to match his passion and drive… and also his hair.

amy_queen

UnseenHorizon wrote: »

Mikezumi wrote: »

I use a different naming theme for each save and I generally use Behind the Name although I have been known to search for rocks, stars, animals, plants, etc. for inspiration.

I've used gem stones as a naming theme for my last save

Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst and Topaz for my girls if I remember correctly

I've never thought of doing that before; all of those names are quite unique and adorable. I may or may not steal that idea next time I'm naming my sims...

I do the same as @TinySpaceFox and only name my characters after I've made them just because looking at them usually spawns a name without much effort on my part; last names are slightly harder and I tend to use 'random name generator'. I'm also weirdly obsessive and don't like overlapping names so I keep track of all of the sims I name in a little book and make sure I don't have any duplicates.

If I'm writing a story I occasionally have certain words that hold meaning I want to associate with certain characters so I look up names with those meanings in multiple languages and pick whichever has the nicest ring to them

CravenLestat

Odonata68 wrote: »

CravenLestat wrote: »

Also keep hitting random till you get a first name you like,remember it,then hit random till you get a last name that flows with it and type in your first name you remembered.

This is exactly what I do!

aprilrose

I try to change it up but I've gone went with space names, southern names, alphabetic and colors at one point.

Goulsquash

I have a word document on my computer with all of the names I like on it. Usually if I'm making a sim, I have an idea of what I want them to look like, and go through the list for one that fits.

For last names, I randomize a lot. Or just I give them one I make up.

Kakashijewl

I have a hard time coming up with names, I tend to go through the same names a lot. There have been some times when I have accidently named two sims in the same family the same thing.

VanPelt81

It really depends. I have some sims that I've made in most or every version of The Sims that have seemingly normal names. I also have been creating some different sims with names that aren't generally common in America. I also do create sims with unfortunate names & names you wonder what their parents were thinking as well.

TinySpaceFox

Oh yeah, one more thing I forgot to add, this one rule that has stuck with me ever since I started playing Sims 3: I never, ever, give a Sim the same name as someone I know personally. Just to avoid awkwardness.

Though, one of my university lecturers is also named Martin. But I only met him recently, long after I created my Sim Martin. So I guess I can let that one slide.

UnseenHorizon

CravenLestat wrote: »

Also keep hitting random till you get a first name you like,remember it,then hit random till you get a last name that flows with it and type in your first name you remembered.

Same here!

UnseenHorizon

@amirahqueen The save file has long since died but by all means use them if it fits your story

https://youtu.be/gmGrsZOIFIE

I don't have much footage of my old save file but here's Topaz and an out of this world encounter.
(No toddlers were hurt during the filming of this video )

Chazzzy

Ha I just started a new family with the last name Phoenix.

I’m doing this thing now where certain men will have all of their children have a first name with the same first letter as them. For example, all of Don Lothario’s children’s names begin with the letter D.

Jessa_Dakkar

Ohh, I am all over the place with names so I will give you the names of some of my sims and the thought process behind each.

Agaetis Byrjun: Icelandic for 'a good beginning'. Originally the name for a founder sim I had in a Sims 2 legacy I started maybe a year before Sims 3 came out. When I got Sims 3, I recreated him to begin my whole Sims 3 experience. Sometimes I will search foreign language meanings that embody the sim.

Reuben Steele : This is the first and middle name of an ancestor of mine I recreated for my game. Other family names I have used for my sims include Antoine Desrosiers and Alexandre Desrosiers.

Sometimes I use names carried forward from other Sims games. When I began playing TSO my first character I named Jessa Dakkar. So when I registered for the Sims 3 site I changed my user name to that to honor her, and she is recreated in my game. A few years into TSO I acquired a second, founder account, and the sim on that one was already named Avalanche Wolf. I have recreated him in my game as the mayor. In Sims 1 when Superstar came out I made a sim I named Joie Starling as it sounded like a half decent starlet name. I have her recreated in my current save too, that name has been dragged from Sims 1 to TSO to Sims 2 and now Sims 3.

Some of my characters are recreations of Sims from other games that were made by EA, like Brandi Broke and her children and the Grunts. I have a sim who is a carryover from my Sims 2 game and the son of Nervous Subject. His name is Malien, and appropriately in Sims 3 he got abducted and had a little alien girl I named Aurora. Aurora because it sounds rather celestial. Malien is a scientist and created a plant baby, her name is Acacia Willow, because plants.

Fubar Dilligaf : I did give TS4 a good try and my last attempt at really finding my place in the game and some fun with it was a sim I created I named Fubar Dilligaf. Because that is what is was and how I felt. The name is an acronym. I always meant to give him a dog named Snafu but haven't got there. Fubar is very happy to be living in my Sims 3 game these days and I am happy to have him there.

Some names are picked at random using the game's system for that. Others come from who even knows where. Some names were placeholder names that I meant to get around to changing but haven't.

I have one sim named Clemens Rehbein because I was huge into Milky Chance at the time. It's fun to see him around town playing guitar and singing for tips.

UnseenHorizon

Chazzzy wrote: »

Ha I just started a new family with the last name Phoenix.

I’m doing this thing now where certain men will have all of their children have a first name with the same first letter as them. For example, all of Don Lothario’s children’s names begin with the letter D.

Hey if any of your Sims die from burning to death you could use this for their tombstone?

"Sometimes you have to burn yourself to the ground before you can rise like a phoenix from the ashes."

UnseenHorizon

Or this even

"I'm like a phoenix. I rise from the ashes."

Now I want to start writing quotes and witty messages on my own tombstones.

TreyNutz

A long time ago, back when I played TS2, I put together a page of themed name lists I got from the internet back then. I still have that piece of paper but can't locate the file. It has the following themes: medieval, goths & vampires, gemstone & colors, myth & legend, cowboy & cowgirl, sci-fi & fantasy. I use that list quite a bit to pick first names. Families generally follow a theme. With the exception of the cowboy/cowgirl list I generally don't use common names at all. I vastly prefer uncommon and unusual names.

Now in TS3 I also use online lists for names. For some sims (especially plumbots) I've used the last name of scientists or fictional robot names. For aliens and the children of aliens I'll use a sci-fi names list. When I'm really stuck, or naming babies by the alphabet, I'll use baby name websites and look for something unfamiliar that I like.

For last names I sometimes use the same sources, sometimes randomize in CAS, and sometimes come up with the last name myself.

Waterdragon

The names of my sims mostly reflect what I´m reading at the moment. That´s how I come up with names like "Randolph". Even though english isn´t my first language, I tend to stick to english names (with a few exceptions).

I started playing around Christmas, so my first sim is named Holly Winters. Her children are Chris and Yuki (snow in japanese).

Sometimes I try to stick to a theme - most of my fairies have "plant" names, like Rowan or Willow.
In one of my saves, all sims are named after flowers.

All of my aliens are named after the actors who played Vulcans in Star Trek, my first alien baby was named Leonard, after Leonard Nimoy.

My first vampire is named Benedict Giles, Benedict because I watched Sherlock at that time and Giles after Rupert Giles from Buffy. It seemed funny.

I also browse sites for baby names a lot.

Also, I never change game-given names - one of my time machine children is named "Uhlbert". He seems to cope.

IreneSwift

Goulsquash wrote: »

I have a word document on my computer with all of the names I like on it. Usually if I'm making a sim, I have an idea of what I want them to look like, and go through the list for one that fits.

For last names, I randomize a lot. Or just I give them one I make up.

This is what I do. I actually have two documents, one with first names, the other with last names. When my husband and I watch movies, I often find new names to add to the lists in the movie credits. LOL!