For those of you who’ve managed to tear yourselves away from Fallout 4 long enough to read this, bear this in mind upon your return to the game: your robot buddy Codsworth might be able to pronounce your character’s name aloud, so long as it’s on this 924-name list.
Seems to me like an odd choice to include this feature in the game, given that by its very nature, a list of names will be exclusionary. Much like the piles of novelty necklaces and license plate holders that I’m sure we all sorted through in our youth, so too does this list fail to include any number of names across cultures and backgrounds.
The list does make room for a lot of weird pop culture references, though, presumably inspired by the assumption that players will name their protagonist after something silly that they think the little bot wouldn’t be able to pronounce. Perhaps Bethesda has secretly been collecting data as to how many of us named our characters “Neo” and “Trinity” over the years? Those two ol’ stinkers are on the list, plus a few more timely references, such as “Furiosa” and “Katniss.” Some of the choices are pretty bizarre — for example, “Unbreakable” is available, but “Kimmy” and “Dunn” are not. “Lara” isn’t available, but “Laura” is. Most of the nerdy names I could think of did appear on the list, though.
The biggest head-scratcher has to be the inclusion of names that a player would only put in as a joke, such as “Boob,” “Boobies,” “Tits,” and several other variations thereon — even “Nipple.” There’s also “Dick” (not so strange) and “Cock” (fair enough) — but no “Balls,” which seems deeply unfair.
It seems like this list of names was designed with the intent to surprise the player and make them giggle if they had chosen a weird name, either due to it being a nerdy reference or due to it being sexual in nature. For players who’ve chosen their own name, though? Those players might not be pleasantly surprised.
Feel free to check the list and see if you’re on it. By the way, “Maddy” isn’t on there.)
(via Eurogamer, image via the Fallout Wiki)
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