Creating a Custom Name List

[Hegelian]

If I were to edit the names lists in the Live.package file, is it necessary to change the text lists in the files for each EP, for the most recent EP only, or for the base game only? I am thinking of resetting my game using SaraMK's clean templates, a set of face replacements, and new names lists for townies and NPCs.

[Aggie]

Can't you just save it as its own file (entitled, of course, Live.package) and put it into Downloads which will override any other lists already in existence?

[Zazazu]

I just edited live.package (from the downloads folder, courtesy of Jordi) in SimPE. I like most of the names, just needed some U, Z, W, and V's added so that I could complete my Alphabet challenge some time down the line. Adding lines to or changing the entries seems to work, if you are just wanting a few changes. I've already seen a townie spawned with a new name I needed.

[Hegelian]

Can't you just save it as its own file (entitled, of course, Live.package) and put it into Downloads which will override any other lists already in existence?

I want it to work for the Maxis neighborhoods, and I think it won't do that when placed in Downloads.

[Khan of Wyrms]

I think you ought to talk to Jordi about this because I believe he has done this.  I seem to recall a mod at MTS2 with his fingerprints on it that did this.  Maybe I am wrong...

Eh, just sat on my lazy butt and went to find it myself.  The thread is here:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=110889

Maybe it has the info you need there.  He also has a separate mod there for pet names as well.

[Zazazu]

Can't you just save it as its own file (entitled, of course, Live.package) and put it into Downloads which will override any other lists already in existence?

I want it to work for the Maxis neighborhoods, and I think it won't do that when placed in Downloads.

Hmm. I thought it would override for the Maxis crap-hoods. Jordi doesn't mention there being any difference between new names in customs and in defaults, and there really isn't a reason for there to be a difference.

Existing townies and NPCs should not be affected, but any new townies or NPCs should now get better names.

I could be bothered to test this in Riverblossom, as I've no desire to play that neighborhood again past jerking over the Corsillo kids (Ramiswami spawn) eventually.

[Hegelian]

Yes, I know about Jordi's project. The current version is still a bit too Anglo-centric for my tastes.

In any case, it's not clear from that thread whether placing a modified Live.package file in Downloads will result in new townie names in the Maxis neighborhoods if I regenerate them. It says that it will work after using DeleteAllCharacters (which I'm not going to do), but is mum regarding regenerating new, populated neighborhoods.

Since each EP has its own Live.package that includes name lists, I'm guessing it should be necessary to replace only the Live.package in my most recent EP (in this case, OFB). I am just looking for confirmation of this.

BTW, I see that the current version of SimPE has the capability of changing the default language for the names lists (the options are English, English-UK, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hebrew, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Hindi, Czech, Ukranian, Arabic, Icelandic, and a few others), but all these are too mono-cultural for my needs—I want something with variety but without the oddball names that populate the default English lists. It is possible to export these name lists with SimPE, so I'm thinking of exporting several, selecting names from the different lists (easier than researching common names in different countries and regions), and pasting them into the default English list.

These exported lists aren't the most convenient files with which to work:

<-Comment->
PJSE String file - single language export
<-String->
Pérez
<-Desc->
The Sims 2 - Needs Translation - Batch20
Random Family Names - please feel free to translate as you wish.
<-String->
Bermúdez
<-Desc->
The Sims 2 - Needs Translation - Batch20
Random Family Names - please feel free to translate as you wish.
<-String->
Sims
<-Desc->
The Sims 2 - Needs Translation - Batch20
Random Family Names - please feel free to translate as you wish.
<-String->
Pastor
<-Desc->
The Sims 2 - Needs Translation - Batch20
Random Family Names - please feel free to translate as you wish.
<-String->
Gutiérrez

but they can be imported back into the game, so it would be easy to export the default English list, cut-and-paste names from the other lists into the default list, and import the default English list back into the file.

[Zazazu]

..and I'm thinking you don't need to replace anything at all. Since Jordi's package goes into Downloads, your modified one should be able to go there too. Unless there's something in the coding I didn't notice before. It's one of the few hacks I've actually delved into.

Eh, there was something somewhere from Jordi here about modifying the package at large (not going through bit-by-bit for minor changes/additions like I did) in the case that you'd like a completely different list. Without looking at the gobble you posted above. Unfortunately, my search-fu here is off and MTS2 is being difficult. Will keep looking.

[Hegelian]

As far as placing a replacement file in Documents, the discussion of Jordi's replacement file speaks only to generating townies (and townie names) after having generated the default neighborhoods, deleting all characters, and then creating new townies as needed or desired. I understand that we can infer that the replacement file will be read when generating new default neighborhoods as well, but I don't know whether we know that for certain. Of course, it's not a big deal to try it out—if it doesn't work, all that needs to be done is to delete the newly-created neighborhoods. But it would be nice to know beforehand what works and what doesn't.

The "gobble" is simply the first five names in the Spanish version of the family-names list, as exported from SimPE:

Pérez
Bermúdez
Sims
Pastor
Gutiérrez

Here's what the lists look like in SimPE. You can see the regional list on the left and the default equivalent on the right.

[Soylent Sim]

If you're talking about the default townies dumped into every 'hood, changing the default name list won't do anything to Goopy and the other pleasantview regulars.  You seem like the sort who already knows this, so I'm expecting you mean something different.

If you're talking about generating townies via the townie tree or something similar, I wouldn't expect it to call on any different routines than what happens when a townie is normally replaced.  If you're set to make a custom 'hood already, it might be quicker to generate one with a "test" live.package - one with no names in common with the regular Maxian one - than to wait for someone with more code-fu to come across this topic.

[Hegelian]

If you're talking about the default townies dumped into every 'hood, changing the default name list won't do anything to Goopy and the other pleasantview regulars.  You seem like the sort who already knows this, so I'm expecting you mean something different.

Indeed. I'm thinking of using SaraMK's "clean" neighborhood templates, which include only the Maxis playables and the townies they know. From there I would either create townies using testing cheats, or else let them self-generate one at a time. I also plan on making a custom lot with no pre-made townies, and then generating the townies using the mailbox. In the latter case, just dropping a modified Live.package in downloads would work fine, apparently.

I don't actually play in the Maxis neighborhoods, so to some extent it's rather a moot point; but I've been told that Strangetown can be fun to play, so I'd see the effects there.

[jrd]

New names are pulled from the strings in Live.package no matter when these names are needed. So it works for normal spawning (new townie/service npc needed), and full-spawning (after DAC or starting from a clean 'hood).

There are several name lists:
-Male first names
-Female first names
-Male last names (base game: Last names for both genders)
-Female last names (uni and up only)
-Male pet names
-Female pet names
-Male pet last names (unused by the code, may have future use)
-Female pet last names (unused by the code, may have future use)

The package must have an equal or higher number of entries than the default (or default names are appended to it). Including a name list not understood or not used by your game version is safe (even though base game doesn't have a separate list for male and female last names, it will be able to use a package with this list in it -- it will just ignore the female last names and use the male list for them. Likewise pets name lists will be ignored for games without pets).

Courtesy of (I think) dizzy2 I have a small program that will take a text list of names in a format easily created with Word or another text editor, and turn it into a Simpe importable file. It's what I used to create the Live.package mods. Instructions and download are buried somewhere in one of the two threads.

[Zazazu]

Courtesy of (I think) dizzy2 I have a small program that will take a text list of names in a format easily created with Word or another text editor, and turn it into a Simpe importable file. It's what I used to create the Live.package mods. Instructions and download are buried somewhere in one of the two threads.

That's what I was trying to find. Got it.

Aya: there's a small program you could use for this.

It will take strings in the form
Code:
0,1
0,John
1,Mark
2,Luke



and convert them to .simpe files which you can import into SimPE.
Your lists can probably easily be transformed into the format required.

You can download the app here: http://members.chello.nl/b.kroonspe.../Name2Simpe.zip

Extract all files in a folder somewhere. You'll only want to edit the text files: leave the other file types alone.

Since in most cases you'll probably want identical last names for males and females, you can copy str98.txt after creating it to strCC.txt. Saves some time.

After you've changed the names in the text file, run name2str.exe

This will generate the four .simpe files containing the names in the right format, and the .xml files which allows you to import the .simpe files into SimPE.

By far the easiest way to make your own mod is to open Live.package in SimPE, and to "replace" the text lists in the existing package with your new files (select the .simpe files, not the xml files).

[Hegelian]

Argh! I closed this tab instead of just coming back to it, and lost all I wrote!   

Anyway:  So, putting a modified Live.package in Downloads is sufficient for it to be used when generating new default neighborhoods using "clean" templates?

I did see the link to the conversion program. Although it may be more work, I'm leaning toward editing existing text files in a copy of the Live.package file . . . . although I may change my mind.   

BTW, the Social Security Administration has a lot of interesting information about U.S. names. Did you know that from 1970 through 1984, the most popular girl's name was Jennifer (since then it has been Emily)? Or that with the exception of 1960, the most popular boy's name from 1954 through 1998 was Michael (since then it has been Jacob)?

You can do a lot of things at this Web site.  You can find the 100 most popular names (100 each for boys and girls) by state for any year beginning with 1960. You can see the most popular 20, 50, 100, 500, or 1000 names for any year since 1879—this is quite interesting, showing the movement away from "traditional" names like Elmer and Bertha toward the "Romance Novel" style of naming babies that has been evident since around 1980. Perhaps most awesome for our purposes, there are lists of the top 1000 names by decade—I can't decide whether to use the 1970s list or the one for the 1890s:  Out of 1.2 million male babies, 80,000 were named John, and 38 were named Admiral.       This would be useful for someone creating a themed neighborhood, Victorian for example, or Wild West. I may use the list from the 1930s or 1940s, since those come after the periods of large-scale immigration from Italy and central Europe. OTOH, there are a lot of obsolete names, especially for men, so I wouldn't want to use all 1000 names.

For surnames, I may use a block of names from the middle of the top 1000 from the 2000 census, maybe from 200-400 (depending on how many I need) to avoid all the really common names like Smith and Johnson, and to pick up more non-Anglo and non-European names. This would be fairly realistic for where I live now—Anglo-American surnames are probably a minority in my neighborhood. My neighbors are from Haiti and there are several Hispanic households nearby. And of course being in south Louisiana, French, Spanish, and German names are common (although in the greater New Orleans phone book, the names with the most entries appear to be Smith, Johnson, and Brown).

[Khan of Wyrms]

On a tangent, interested in sharing lists of outrageous, unique, or funusual surnames that exist in real life?  I have a peculiar fascination with this because I tend to build lots of houses and after doing all the work I normally feel compelled to fill the house with a family, often one that I have little interest in playing.  In effect, I am filling my 'hoods with custom townies that own houses.  (Not concerned with how this may or may not implode my game, my game is already hopelessly corrupt, and I have been doing this since the very beginning)  I love strange and suggestive surnames that exist in real life, and have collected quite a few, such as 'Strangewayes', 'Sweetecok', and 'Deatherage'.  I have quite a lot, but I am running out of names and I need more.  If you or anyone else is interested I could compile a list and share, but only if I thought others would be interested and would contribute.  If you would rather not clutter this thread with this, I could alternately start a new topic, but it seems to have some application here.

[Hegelian]

I once had a job working with real estate tax roles. A name I came across that I have used in my game is Speener Hose.

[Zazazu]

Actually knew a guy with the last name "Porn".

[jrd]

Hegelian: once you have a modified list, ANY new generated townie/service NPC/stray will take its name from that list. So, yes.

[Hegelian]

Hegelian: once you have a modified list, ANY new generated townie/service NPC/stray will take its name from that list. So, yes.

Cool! Thanks!!

[Soylent Sim]

I was unaware that there would be a need for different male and female last names.  Is this just my anglocentricism showing through, or is there much need for different surnames by sex?

One of the unfortunate things about about the engine is that skin tone and first name are often correlated in real life, while there's no system in place to simulate that in the game.  (And in all fairness, I could see such a system getting uglier than it's worth for EA to include.)  I guess in the game's colorblind utopia it won't matter, but as a player it'd be interesting to see how the "ethnic" names get mismatched every which way.

KoW, afraid I can't help much.  I run in circles with some interesting first names, but last names seem to be pretty run of the mill.  It might help to bone up on some etymology, though, as certain last names have interesting antecedents even if they're not as directly suggestive as you'd like.  Just a way to pad your list and all...

[AnnaM]

I was unaware that there would be a need for different male and female last names.  Is this just my anglocentricism showing through, or is there much need for different surnames by sex?

The one that springs to my mind is Russian. Ulanov/Ulanova, and so on. Statistically, there must be other languages that do the same...

[Khan of Wyrms]

Subtly suggestive definitely works for me, and are even more desirable, though they are harder to come by and more tricky to identify when scanning large lists for new candidates.  I do have some scandalous foreign-translation surnames in play already, although some of these are made up names or just words used for names and therefore not as desirable.  Not every name need or can be as luridly descriptive as 'Rayphole' or 'Cockburn', and I can definitely appreciate a name if it just has an interesting sound or unique cadence.  A name can be just 'cool' like 'Ravenscroft', for instance, and that is good enough for me.

It is very often that the use of a great surname is, for myself, one of the main things that can determine if I actually play a family beyond moving them into a house.

Perhaps if I get some time later I will compose a more extensive list and post it here, since there seems to be at least a modicum of interest and, given the opportunity, Hegelian did not object.

[Sagana]

The one that springs to my mind is Russian. Ulanov/Ulanova, and so on. Statistically, there must be other languages that do the same...

I believe in Iceland they still use a traditional naming scheme that includes "jonsdattir or svensdottir and stefansson or helgarsonur, depending on the child's gender, so definate need for a different list male to female.

[jrd]

Yeah, Iceland doesn't have last names, but patrinomics.
In the Live.package I have uploaded the male and female last name lists are identical, in my own version there is a difference in them as I offset the female last names by half (to avoid even more cases of duplicate last names).

[J. M. Pescado]

Could be worse. You could end up like Major Major Major Major.