A friend of mine likes to name his generic pilots and in one game where he had an Academy Pilot he'd named him Kenneth.
Kenneth kind of stuck as a name for any Academy Pilot, and his back story got fleshed out, so I thought it would be neat if Kenneth became a unique with his own ship card:
I invite you all to use Kenneth in your casual games, and Alex / Frank if you are reading this, please feel free to bring Kenneth in to the official ranks of the empire! (Yeah I know that won't happen)
I tend to name mine 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 
I think uniquely named generics like that would make for great Tourney prize cards. Neat.
but naming then makes them more personal and then it hurts more when they die..... if they are only a number it does not hurt so much 
I name mine in vassal. Usually sequential first letters. So Allan, Brad, Chris and Debbie.
Other times I'll name them based on characters in the Edge of the Empire game I play.
I have always intended to give names to my various squad members, but first I wanted to flesh out the general squadron background and that is slower going than I would like.
I name them after my opponent's pets to see if they hesitate in targets the pick. For straight death match games anyway.
But occasionally I'll try to make a story of things if Missions and Objectives are the main plot for the evening/month.
I name them after my opponent's pets to see if they hesitate in targets the pick. For straight death match games anyway.
Wish I had thought of that
Hmmmm
Perhaps a Tie Fighter
With a Stealth Upgrade for Agility 4
Call him "Ducky"
We always used to name our old star wars characters from the indian restaurants take away menu
Keema Naan of the rebel alliance, ace bounty hunter Rogan Josh and imperial spy Saag Aloo all sounded stupidly star wars
But in all seriousness in the campaign Urban Cannibal and I have you start with all generics so its much cooler to name them, when i started playing xwing i was sort of dissapointed that ship/pilot were bonded together as i was hoping you could 'build' characters in the warhammer/40k way.
Im used to the xwing system now but at first I was a bit miffed i could not create my own named PS7 pilot with a chosen ability in a legal to play in pick up games way. All you really can do is say take 'tycho' and rename him
We always used to name our old star wars characters from the indian restaurants take away menu
Keema Naan of the rebel alliance, ace bounty hunter Rogan Josh and imperial spy Saag Aloo all sounded stupidly star wars
But in all seriousness in the campaign Urban Cannibal and I have you start with all generics so its much cooler to name them, when i started playing xwing i was sort of dissapointed that ship/pilot were bonded together as i was hoping you could 'build' characters in the warhammer/40k way.
Im used to the xwing system now but at first I was a bit miffed i could not create my own named PS7 pilot with a chosen ability in a legal to play in pick up games way. All you really can do is say take 'tycho' and rename him
Mon Calamari called Prawn Biryani ....
so who is butter chicken maybe a Bothan
Samosa the Y-wing pilot?
I think Vindaloo would have to be a Wookie pilot - fierce and powerful.
Tandoori the Trandoshan Firespray pilot...
...on second thoughts perhaps Vindaloo should be a Firespray pilot because.... no I won't go there.
Let's just say it's a Johnny Cash curry.....
Samosa the Y-wing pilot?
I think Vindaloo would have to be a Wookie pilot - fierce and powerful.
Tandoori the Trandoshan Firespray pilot...
...on second thoughts perhaps Vindaloo should be a Firespray pilot because.... no I won't go there.
Let's just say it's a Johnny Cash curry.....
You must be a father....
Because your puns are...
Daaaaaaaad..
ok now i need a curry..... tonight i'll got to my local Indian take away and "order number 66" from the menu
Another good ones was medicines.
I had an xwing pilot character called 'Dak Tarin' which is a brand of anti fungal cream if i recall correctly.
edit: I've never really understood why people name characters in fantasy or sci fi worlds with conventional western english names when the mythos doesnt support it.
In RPGs i had a mate called Chris playing a hunter who wanted to call him 'Chris Hunter', not really fitting the 14th century germanic warhammer setting 'Krisyan' or somesuch would have been fine.
Likewise 40k space marines called 'Alan' or 'Chuck'
its not that hard to look up appropriate names using the internet, greek/roman ones for 40k, medieval ones for warhammer, and yeah... star wars type ones for star wars.
I get some people do it for a laugh but i'm a narrative player, games are supposed to have a story. And if in my star wars RPG the arch enemy imperial officer was called 'James Clarke' it would jar
I know the 'curry names' thing *sounds* equally wrong in theory but actually if you didnt know it was a curry
'rogan josh' is on a par with 'dash rendar' or 'han solo'
could even use something like this:
http://starwars.namegeneratorfun.com/
I do have to add that we have a bit of a convention in our games that contradicts all of the above in that lone surviving unamed accademy ties (who usually kill something epic) are ALWAYS called 'ensign jimmy' after the episode of will wheatons 'tabletop' where they name said lone tie who does very well 'ensign jimmy'.
I had an xwing pilot character called 'Dak Tarin' which is a brand of anti fungal cream if i recall correctly.
Was his best friend a cross-eyed Wookiee by chance?
and fat chewy would be Viagra .... because he got real hard
Names backwards is also a good one, as I recall Trebor for instance is quite a common name in the star wars universe
We always used to name our old star wars characters from the indian restaurants take away menu
Keema Naan of the rebel alliance, ace bounty hunter Rogan Josh and imperial spy Saag Aloo all sounded stupidly star wars
Pilots in generics who survive a mission or two generally get named in our campaigns.
Some even get special rules or EPT slots. (or improve a size). Really it depends on the campaign. One project I had basically was a D20 game, but had X-wing, with "NPCs" being the pilots of 4 y-wings. These y-wings could get upgraded (though the players had to pay a credit cost for the parts, or complete missions to capture crew, astromechs etc, and perform repair checks to mount multi modifications) at the end though their squadron could get really beefed out. Their ground team (I used 1st ed 40k for this, yes Gadge I still has my Rogue trader!) Also had names and XP (effecting BS etc) which was stored on a spreadsheet somewhere.
Amazing how much a bolter is statistically like a blaster.
Anyway, naming characters, even if, EVEN IF I SAY, there is no statistical difference over the course of a narrative campaign really makes the difference. Those of us who were around when the first xcom games were out have probably all named team mates after our friends here, this is no different.
On a ground mission If in a previous mission Trooper Gren Stafani blasted a pair of stormtroopers, allowing medic Kart Cubain to rescue a 0 wound Lt. Uzzi Usbirne, but in the next mission Gren Stafani was instakilled by stormtrooper TX888 with an autocannon E-web it's a real tragedy.
Piffle. Everyone knows Academy Pilots are named Kevin. It's a law.
Gaary? GARY? GARY!
