Simsworthy Names in Real Life

Sometimes I take from certain people, but more their characteristics rather than their name. Sometimes I want to make certain sims with a particular ancestry, and I will look up names on the internet for that. Once I did use a last name of a doctor I had because it just seemed to fit.

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer, because it's much more fun: Creating Sims and naming them might be the part of the game my daughter and I enjoy most.

We saw a name on a list of donors to a theater renovation, and we looked at each other. "She's about to become a Sim," Z declared, and I nodded.

As the credits rolled by, I spotted the name of someone who worked on a movie. I recited the name. "That's a good one," I observed. Z nodded. We've also added a few fictional characters to our saves, but not too many.

We're constantly using a variety of fantasy name generators to help us name our Sim creations. We'll choose an ethnicity, and off we'll go.

I've played other games that need to generate lots of character names. Football Manager populates the world with the names of "newgen" teenagers who join football (soccer) clubs all over the world as the years roll by. Some of these fictional footballers have lent their names to Sims. Z is putting the finishing touches on James James, who first appeared on my laptop screen as a goalkeeper for Plymouth Argyle.

Perhaps the nerdiest Sim-naming trend we've adopted is giving a few Sims the names of people who were caught in the Johnstown Flood, which wrecked a Pennsylvania city in 1889. One of the heroes of that story earned a place in our Gallery. Two or three others, who lost their lives in the Flood, live their best lives in our Simworld.

I don't use names of people I know, but I do use an app called Random name generator.

Yup. I'm an historical fan of some real people of the past. I've named my sims with a real life names. Sometimes I get creative with their last name sometimes not. They are:
Adam & Eve Genesis
Cleopatra Egypt, Julius Caesar & Mark Anthony
Esther Babylonpersia
Pocahontas & John Wolfe
Laura Prairie based on Laura Wilder from her biography books Little House on the Prairie
Shirley Temple

That's all I can think of. I have 6 different timeline game saves with many different households based on both historical & fictional stories. I try to remember them all but I have so many. I'm never ever bored with my Sims 4 since I decided back in 2020 to add on a different timeline game save. My saves are Prehistoric, Ancient Times to Dark Ages, Medieval to Renissance, Georgian to RagTime, Roaring 20s to Awesome 80s & Futuristic 2525 Beyond. :p
I only play vanilla & my packs/kits. ;)

If it’s a main character, I usually have a name picked out. If the character is somehow unique or I need a culturally appropriate name, I’ll use a name generator. Random sims get game generated names. I’ve rarely met a real person who inspires a sim name, but will sometimes do Sim like puns on real names. The Wilson brothers of The Beach Boys became The Wilsims. I named a politician Ron Bragg, because that’s all he did. A Jimmy Buffett look alike became Jimmy Buffet because that’s a common misspelling. I gave him the glutton trait.

I work with a guy named Blade Slade :D I thought maybe he changed it to that but no, apparently that's his birth name!

When I was at uni, I came across a guy my age called Roger Pickles. This was in 2019.

Sometimes I use the name of the fake sender of spam email as name for a sim :) For a period I got tons of such trash mail and had to come up with a way to benefit from them...

I tend to subconsciously store names I like the sound of, though sometimes I struggle with the surnames.

If I’m creating a sim with a specific ethnic background, I’ll just Google some appropriate names.

I come across so many different names in my day to day life, including work and whatnot, and I also like sifting through name generators and name lists online too when I'm trying to get an idea for a sim, as well as using names from media that I happen to like. Anytime I hear one I can make a good pun out of I try to remember it so I can use it in my game later. Been wanting to make a werewolf named Fluff Nadeau for a little while now, just haven't gotten around to it.