That *does* raise a question whether you've updated SimPE. I've never seen German NPC names, myself.
It depends on what version you're referring to. I have SimPE for FT, but not sure if it's the version including K&B. But if I recall correctly, I'd seen the same pre-FT as well. Anyhow - the interesting part is that the Sim Browser shows the
correct German townie/NPC names (as already mentioned, it's just the CAS sims being randomly named). Seems like SimPE checks the OS language settings, not the game language settings.