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When you're playing a RPG ( or any other game for that matter) that allows you to change the characters names, do you change them ( and if so what do you name them) or leave them alone? Some games I can think of are:

Final Fantasy IX:

Zidane= Mouse ( because of his tail)

Steiner= BUG ( not sure WHY exactly, also, everytime I name him I always accidently capitizile all the letters....and never catch it before it too late.)

Quina= I know I named it something different, but I can think of it right now, I'll edit it when I think it.

Amarant= Red

Freya: Zelda ( she's an action girl through and through!)

Rune Factory 1/2/3:

Raguna= Crow (I don't know why, I think it fits...)

Kyle= Edward ( because I didn't like the name Kyle)

Micah= Light

I generally keep to the default names, but since you brought up FF9, I always decide to keep Garnet's name as Garnet instead of Dagger or whatever it is she wants to change it to. I just think it's stupid, and never really took to the new name.

I'm often stuck at naming screens for characters in games where there is no default though, and I'm not in the mood to put in Drake. I want to come up with something good and fitting, that I won't hate being stuck with for a whole number of hours. I do have a list for a few games of names I keep when I replay, once I come up with something that fits so well, I can't give it up. Notable examples in the Persona series:

For P3, my hero is always Yamazaki Kaoru (after the character from NHK!)
For P4, my hero is always Tsukino Hisao (named after one of my own characters, from Mirai Imouto)
For P3P, I named the girl hero Kushieda Minori (after the character from Toradora)

Since you also brought up Rune Factory, for RF Frontier on the Wii, I changed Raguna's name to Hisao, which has become a second default for me after "Drake". I had two profiles for Demon's Souls, Drake and Hisao respectively. I also have two for Dark Souls, the first being Drake, but as I went female for the second playthrough and wanted to play a mage, I named her Marivel after my character from Starlit Sky.

Quick edit: Also of mention, I always end up naming Frog "Glenn" in Chrono Trigger, as well has half the time naming Marle "Nadia"... in line with keeping Garnet as Garnet, I guess I have a thing for pinning characters' real names to their display names for games like this.

I generally leave the default names alone, unless I reallllly dislike the character's name xD
If there is no default name, I just pick any random name that sounds nice. Not too much thought goes into my RPG characters' names xD

I always leave them to their default names... unless they have no default names, hehehe... No matter how bad their default names are, they're there for a reason.

I might shorten names. In FFVII I shortened Red XIII and Cait Sith to Red and Cait.

Depends on the name. Short of me hating it, I probably won't be changing it.

Unless it's like Devil Survivor, where the default name is like, 'Hero'. I changed it to Jun* because...I like that name. Upon reflection, I should've gone with 'Hiro', since it sounds more or less the same, but one being an actual name.

*For his nickname I went with 'Joker', as in 'The Joker'. Why? Why not. Also, it starts with 'j'.

Ohhh, man... in Devil Survivor I called the main character Peter Parker. With the nickname Spidey.

And when I was playing Persona 4, the protagonist was called Dave Awesome. (it's even gotten to the stage where if I talk about Dave my friends know who I mean, oh lord)

Basically, if I am given an option to name a character, they *will* be given a silly name. XD (And don't even get me started on my Pokemon nicknames...)

Er, default names if possible. I usually play otome games so you know, I want the guys to be able to call me by the name than just nothing.

on TMGS series, on 1st love: Inoue Remi, 2nd kiss: Inoue Remi, 3rd story: Inoue Yuuhi (Apparently, having an english name, they won't be able to pronounce カミル correctly)

I usually use Yuuhi as a name if there is no default now. :'D I like the sound of it.

If I like the character's original name, I usually keep it (unless there's already a save file that uses the default name >___< Then I pick something random or name the character "Boo").

I always keep the default name unless its a female MC, then I usually replace the given name with my own name.
In Persona series, I named the guy Yahisa Kouhei, for unknown reasons other than that I like it XD
And if it allows a nickname, then I name him Pumpkin.
In Pokemon, the name is always Pumpkin. Always!
I just... think Pumpkin is a cute name for a guy ^^;;

See, I hate my name too much to actually use it for game characters. It'll only be a...reminder of how I was constantly teased because of what my name is*. Consequently, I use anything BUT my name for girl characters. In Magical Diary, I tend to use puns, or play off of someone else's name. Ex., one 'Mary Sue' I renamed to Ricarda Matheson, or a feminine version of Richard Matheson, a.k.a. one of my favorite authors ever.

I suppose the next one will be named Stephanie Queen.**

*No I won't tell any of you. The thread that has my 'name' is my middle name, and I don't even go by it.

**'Stephen King'

Default names. That way I don't have to remember what I called them AND what the game calls them, so I'm not all confused when people start talking to me about the characters. On the off chance that I do change it, like when I've got the names memorized, it'll be one of my many names (Sven, Case, Xaxu, Bob (the unofficial pronunciation of 'Xaxu'), and a number of others). It's all about memory.

Yes, I often change character's names whenever I'm allowed to because I'm usually very picky about names. I often think something along the lines of "Oh, god. Why'd they give that character such a stupid name?" when I look at their names. Not that I don't come up with stupid ones sometimes myself....but I like to think I'm better at coming up with names than a lot of people.

Of course, if you're playing a game where the game is supposed to be centered around "you" or "you" are the savior of the world .....why put up with a default name?

Then there's games like The Sims 2 or Animal Crossing where you can make your character look as close to you as possible anyway so you're going to be picky with names there...

And it depends on what kind of game I'm playing....I think "Alex" could easily fit in any theme since it's just short for Alexander or Alexandra / Alexandria.

But names like "Skippy" don't really fit in well with medieval fantasy , science fiction, tribe games , ect. unless we're talking parody....

And I always think names like "Spike" are better suited for dogs than human characters.

That's another thing that bothers me...if I think their given name doesn't really suit them then I'll change it. Like giving a boring average name like Joe or Bob for example to a very attractive character (especially if they are both very attractive and rich / famous) ....it just seems "off" when people do that.

I always keep the default names, unless they are so awful sounding that I'm compelled to change them. But if they have no name given I usually name them either Lola or Loki depending if they are male or female. I like to keep it simple.

I usually keep the default names, mostly because it makes it more natural when discussing those characters with other people.