So as I understand it, there are several ways to edit a Sim's name, the surname in particular. Anyone who has ever played Malcolm Landgraab IV has probably realized that the game engine won't append any surnames if a father and his son happen to have the same name...no Juniors, no Seniors, no Roman numerals or whatnot. So someone had to edit Malcolm's name to add the "IV" on the end, and you had better be prepared to do the same thing if you ever want him to sire a Malcolm Landgraab V.

There's also the matter of players who want to run historical or para-historical neighborhoods. Back before the Romans and other conquering civilizations came stomping along and made a mess of things, several Old World civilizations and barbarian cultures had patronyms instead of surnames. While surnames are passed down from generation to generation, patronyms changed from generation to generation because the children's last name was taken from their father's first name, usually with an appropriate "son of" or "daughter of" prefix or suffix. Bygone patronymic cultures include the Old Scottish (ie. Ander -> Tearlach Mac Ander -> Farlan Mac Tearlach -> Elspeth Nic Farlan), the Old Norse (Thorin -> Asger Thorinsen -> Haldor Asgersen -> Ingrid Haldordottir) and the Old Arabic (Rashid -> Qasim bin Rashid -> Imaran bin Qasim -> Fatimah bint Imaran). So Simmers wanting to recreate such Old World cultures in their neighborhoods may also want to edit their Sims' last names from one generation to the next.

So while I understand that SimPE gives us the option of editing Simmy names, what other cheats or doodads also allow us to edit last names, and which works best for you?

The Sim Blender is useful for this. It gives two options: to change a sim's first name, and to change a sim's surname to be the same as the first name. So to change the surname you need a three step operation. (Change given name to what you want the surname to be, change surname to same as given name, change given name back to what it's supposed to be.)

Thank you for reminding me about Sim Blender. I tried it on for size last week, but I didn't go very far.

I wonder why Sim Blender allows players to directly edit first names but forces them to go through that awkward process to change last names. Are last names harder coded than first names somehow, or was the Sim Blender's creator just not being thorough?

There's something about last names and how they go through the program data. You can use the batbox to change names as well, and somewhere on MATY Pescado gave some explanation of why and how he programed it the way he did, in a way that's as obtuse to non-programers as Pescado's explanations usually are.

I can't say that I've tried his Batbox yet. Would you say that it's any easier to use than SimPE is, or is it trickier?

It works exactly the same way the simblender does to change the last names. I would say that the batbox is extremely useful for all sorts of things and you should probably have it on every lot. It can fix stuck animations, delete gossip from living and dead, fix school performance level so your newly adopted child sim doesn't get taken away by the social worker before he has a chance to go to school, upgrade a sim made in CAS to have a university diploma and all relevant Freetime points, make genetic personalities be the actual personality (this is useful with premades like Nervous Subject) or make altered personalities be genetic, get a playable sim that has gotten stuck off-lot back onto the lot, do step one (or maybe it's two) of the safest known way to delete sims, and much, much more.

The Bat Box is one of the standard fight corruption mods Pizza, you should have that. If not go get it.http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...topic,72.0.html I have it on every lot usually under the foundation. It has a number of functions from things as simple as fixing 'lost fishing spots' to as important as removing off world loiterers on your business lot before your sim leaves to go home. I use it often to roll the randomizer to prevent first born syndrome, roll LTW, stop acceseries or vampire fangs from flashing blue, clear trash memories and so many more things.

You can rename a Sim using the Batbox, instructions here. First, testingcheatsenabled must be on. Then, Shift+Click on the Batbox, and you'll get the options required to rename the Sim.

No, it works with SimPE but the batbox/blender process is more thorough. I can't remember the explanation either but it seems surnames are stored in two locations. You only change one of them with SimPE and your sim will secretly remain John Smith when you renamed to Smythe though most of the time you won't see it. The rename first-name, copy it over to surname, rename again with the first name you want technique gets round this issue and your sim will be thoroughly renamed if you do it that way. I can't remember what the issue is - Pescado did explain it at MATY and why it had to be done the way it is with the batbox/blender.

So the batbox/blender method is better and safer than the SimPE method? I thought it was the other way around for some reason, but that's really good to know. Thanks, guys!

I thought it was pretty silly for Maxis to create a family name with a number as in Malcolm Landgraab IV. To get around this I created a female with the Landgraab surname and the next number up to marry into the family, until I found it a pain in the arse, and discontinued. However, as I don't use mods or hacks this is my workaround for changing a surname - create a partner with the desired surname to marry.

Changing an individual Sim's last name with the Sim Manipulator is straightforward (Misc... > More... > Change Last Name...). I use it frequently when creating townies in CAS. I know there's some complication about it being better to change either First Name or Last Name in game, and the other one being better done in SimPE, but I can never remember which is which, so I change them both with the Sim Manipulator. (I understand that it's not all that important -- I think SimPE misses something that is hardly ever used.) If I have to change the family surname (e.g. to give them a hyphenated name after a marriage), I do that in SimPE (FAMI).

I discovered quite early on that an individual Sim can have a different surname to the family one, the first time I moved a townie in without marrying or adopting him/her.

Personally I think that the family name should just be Landgraab, and the suffix IV, V etc. should only be added to Malcolm's surname. (But I haven't got him in my game yet, because I still haven't got OFB!)

I don't think it's a safer issue, just more thorough.

I think that just changes the family name on the loading screen, not the name of the individual sims.


Yes, that came with University.


I'd do that with SimPE myself.

You see the original name sometimes when the game throws an error (and you have debug mode on) - you'll see the game referring to instances of some sim you have no recollection of.

I find renaming using the blender to be a huge pain because in a large hood you're cycling through pages of sims to change the name. I don't really care if it changes it in the game files or not. I just want it to look right to me!

You change the surname of the individual sim in the character files with SimPE. If you change the last name field, it'll take everywhere. You have to do it for every person whose name you wish to change.

That's what I usually do, but people above are saying this doesn't *really* change the name? Well, anyway, I don't mind if it's cosmetic.

Using the Sim Manipulator allows changing either first or last name in one step for each. It also does pretty much what blender does and more, but having both is useful.

Sorry, didn't see Andrew Gloria's post.

It's only the first name that doesn't change everywhere changing it in SimPE. I've never heard of it causing an actual problem in game, though.

The thing to remember about the name is, that it doesn't matter to the game. Sims are identified through numbers. If the only problem with changing "Tommy" to "Tom" in SimPE is, that a few functions will still link the name "Tommy" to the ID number, this causes no actual glitches that anyone has identified. It's not stray data looking for an ID number to hook up to - it's just two slightly different parts of the user interface using different names. Kind of like, when people spell my name correctly it's satisfying, but people giving routinely give me two Ns, and sometimes a Y, in newsgroup posts, doesn't actually cause confusion in context - we all still know who's referred to.

Surnames don't have even this issue, because surnames are expected to change during gameplay, when sims get married or when children taken by the social worker are adopted. The game was prepared for that change and the code made it easy to associate the new surname with the old number. You may notice, going through memories, that when a name is changed at marriage, it's retroactively changed in the memories: everyone who met Cassandra while she was a Goth will suddenly remember meeting Cassandra Lothario if she takes Don's name.

Batbox Q here... *waves*
I've had the batbox since the beginning of 'time' But, I only buy it when I need it - I use it and then, delete it.
...am I supposed to be leaving it on the lot, buried somewhere, (like it says in the RFM?) for real?


Thanks!

No that's fine. Some of us leave it on lot for convenience.

Whew! Thanks, Maxon

When I don't feel like stopping to go to SimPE, I use the Sim Blender

I started 'burying' it under the foundation after someone said if the lot glitches up and build and buy mode becomes unavailable having the batbox out could save things. I've actually never seen that as the dorm on cheat has always worked even on a hotel lot when I had a stuck sim, so I don't know. It's one of my OCD things to place the bat box.