The Names Files

The first_names.txt and names.txt files each store three pieces of data per name as follows:

Field #	Value	Description
1	Name or First Name	In the names.txt file, these are all surnames. In first_names.txt, they are all first names.
2	Frequency	The usage frequency for this name, within its name set.
3	Name Set ID	The unique identifier of the name set for this name, a number between 0 and 39.

Note: Although most of the names in the files are sorted alphabetically, they are not required to be so.

About Name Sets

A "name set" is a group of names, usually belonging to one ethnic origin rather than a specific nationality. For example, there is a Japanese name set, a Hispanic name set, and so on. OOTP supports up to 40 different name sets, each with a unique numeric ID number, from 0 to 39. Both the first_names.txt and names.txt files contain names for all forty sets. The name files that come with the game already have 40 defined name sets, as follows:

ID	Nationality	ID	Nationality
0	U.S. (Modern)	20	UK
1	Hispanic	21	Albanian
2	Japanese	22	Serbian
3	South Korean	23	Greek
4	Chinese	24	Turkish
5	Portuguese	25	Danish
6	Dutch	26	Armenian
7	German	27	Indian
8	French	28	Australian
9	Italian	29	Azerbaijan
10	Norwegian	30	Polynesian
11	Finnish	31	Austrian
12	Swedish	32	Canadian
13	Russian	33	French-Canadian
14	Czech/Slavic	34	Filipino
15	Polish	35	Romanian
16	Scottish	36	Indonesian
17	Arabic	37	Pakistani
18	Irish	38	Vietnamese
19	African	39	U.S. (Historical)

Note: If a name set ID exists in nations.txt for which no names exist, then players will receive a name of 'Joe Nobody.'

About Name Frequency

Each name is given a numeric frequency, the second value in each row of data. The frequency determines how often a certain name will be used within the context of a single name set. For example, let's say you had the following name rows:

David,50,0
John,50,0
Michael,50,0
Steve,25,0
Tom,25,0

This would tell us that the names David, John, and Michael would be used with roughly the same frequency (50). Steve and Tom (25) would be used about half as frequently as David, John, and Michael. So, if your league had 40 players, you might expect to see 10 Davids, 10 Johns, 10 Michaels, 5 Steves, and 5 Toms.

Three important notes about frequency:

• All names should have a frequency. If you're not sure about frequency, or just want all names to be used equally, set all frequencies to 1. This is done in many of the name sets that come with the game.
• Frequency is NOT a percent. There is no maximum value. You could rate your names on a 1-100 scale, 1-1000, or whatever scale you like.
• Frequencies are specific to a name set. For example, you could use a 1-10 scale for U.S. names, a 1-100 scale for French and 1-1000 for Arabic. As long as you are consistent within a name set, the game will utilize the frequencies correctly.

One-Row Example of First Names

So, let's look at a one-row example from the first_names.txt file:

John,192,0

This means that the first name John has a frequency of 192, and a name set ID of 0. The 192 is not a percentage, it's simply a relative frequency compared to other first names in name set 0. Looking at the chart, we see that name set 0 is the "Modern U.S." name set. Name sets are associated with nations in the game, so that you can define what types of names are generated for what nations. We'll cover that in more detail in a bit.

Nicknames

The nick_names.txt file is simply a list of nicknames, with no frequencies. It couldn't be easier to edit. Just add new rows for new nicknames and save the file. Not all players receive nicknames. OOTP randomly assigns nicknames to players. Typically, the higher the player's potential, the more likely he is to receive a nickname

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Next page: Putting Names and Nations Together