I use Jedda in most of my games. The name comes from Arcus Odyssey, a Megadrive/Genesis game. So, that's almost 30 years of identity fraud!

Yeah after my net name WOULD NEVER USE my REAL name to embarrassing

I guess we all have our preferences. One of mine, aside from the ones already mentioned, is that i never play as a wizard because i can't be bothered to learn all those little nuances like what goes with what etc.

Similarly, the only time i voluntarily chose to be a female was when i began a new playthrough of Fallout 2 and wanted to change it up a bit. But i aborted that quickly and now i am back to male character.

And also i wouldn't like to play as a character that's not caucasian. I am not being racist but in my country there are few non caucasian people so my character being non caucasian would be American-ish

Regarding playing as a wizard: I can relate to that, but it depends on the game. In Risen I played a mage, because it seemed way easier to me than learning all the intricacies of the melee combat system.
Never played a female character in the Fallout games either, didn't seem worth it. Played as a woman in Baldur's Gate 2 once though, because I wanted to see the Anomen romance, lol.

I always play a mage if at all possible. And in terms of look, if customizable in that way, first thing I (try to) set is definitely shoulder-length white(-ish) hair.

Oh, but about Kalee, there's actually a bit more of a story behind that than behind Calad. Yes, it does come from trying to make Cal sound female, but the whole spelling comes from a character I put in a RPG Maker 2000 game I was trying to make way back, initially called Ki'sha, and when I showed it to my dad he commented about the apostrophe and that I'm following a trend with using such names, which made me change it to Keesha, and then somehow when I was looking for a name for a female character I remembered that, even if it had been several years earlier, and mixed that Kee with the idea of a female Cal, ending up with that.
But only used that I think some 3 times.

Usually what fits the theme, setting an character best.

There seem to be at least two approaches. The "that is me in a game" player and the "this is my ward whom I accompany in a game" player. I don't like to see my characters as myself but rather protagonists of their story guided by me. Trying it that way also removes the awkward "I never play as an Elf Warrior; because I'm a Human Botanist IRL!" feeling the former group express more often then not.

*ponders* ... Probably part of a reason why I just cannot connect with FPS/FPS View games anymore.

Unless it's a predetermined character I usually make up a name (i.e. Araphon, Sarr, Sophmariel, Artemsis, etc) followed almost always by the surname "Skylath". I tend to kind of make up the backstory in my mind and usually they're related to a similarly heroic Skylath in the video game's universe. Kind of depends on the NPCs that I interact with as well.

In single player games, default name.

If no default name, i'll try to play on a theme. Like Skyrim i might go with SharpClaw when playing a catfolk or something.

I got a special name for MMO games that is fairly unique and keeps a theme. Though i rarely find an MMO i really want to play long enough to get anywhere...

Never named one after myself. I have occasionally named a female character after my wife, if the setting of the game suits a very modern name. Otherwise I have standard fake names I use... Deckard for men (Blade Runner) and Alessa for women (a twist on an old Morrowind name I think, but I forget now).

I usually name them after crusty old memes because I'm creative like that.

I like my own name, but I've never named my toons after myself. There's a kind of system I sometimes use.

My half-orc names are short and sound harsh. There's an emphasis on the letters B, G, and D. These names can easily be mistaken for someone grunting. Examples: Urkk,.Grudd, Gruush

Dwarf characters get harsh sounding names, but the names are usually longer and more complex. Examples: Gorbandor, Delannden. One name I reserved for dwarves is 'Sanjo'. It's the corruption of the name "Sandro", who is someone at my work.

Elf names are a little softer, and sort of wispy. Examples: Phaelen, Shalantra (this name is also rooted in "Chandra", which is Hindi for "moon"). One of my characters in Icewind Dale 2 is a drow arcane caster. His name is Hexazadimax. I made that up because I wanted something that sounded exotic and alien; which is what the underdark is.

My human names are usually a corruption of real names. Examples: Jahan (from John), Jenna (from Jenny). Some non-English, modern names can also be used for RPGS. Examples: Farah, Tien, Rao

But if I'm feeling lazy I just use a fantasy name generator. Sometimes I steal names from other places. Tyris-Flare is one of my favourites. Please excuse the mountain of errors in my reply. I'm having difficulty both staying awake and proof-reading my post.

ooooooh, what a lovely question

sometimes i do name myself after myself, racing games for example ... grid in particular

i get boring with female names, most of the time using Lisa though sometimes i prepare to go wild with an elven female for example

online names i tend to go stupid.... such as Radiance ... or my latest invention Red Dawnbreaker, a something something for Luke Skywalker .. tried a women's name once online, Dilana but that wasn't much of a succes with every game being charged with young arabics and south asian dudes who where trying to be helpful

Usually i do try to stay in the line of the settings, fantasy sci fi .... races and such

and feel upfronted with people going with hacker names, stupid names, so called elite names or anything in between

so thats that

I usually name my character Krugos; I don't really like my real name, so I never use it. If playing with a female character or several characters, I have a few other names that I use often.

I never imagine a fantasy character to be myself, and I don't even give them my own name. I don't have a set of recurrent name to use either. I just decide spontaneously what I think might fit my created character in the context of the game. Admittedly, sometimes I google names and their meaning in some other language (e.g. in Irish), which is a bit cringy, but then again, I mostly just play SP games anyway. As for outward appearance and such, I usually pick what I think looks coolest or would be fun to roleplay. And more often than not I go for magic users in fantasy games, as they seem to be the most versatile and cause the biggest explosions. ;)

I bet the next question will be about our preferences when picking our passwords. XD

Depends on the game and genre.

Do I play some "faceless" company in, let's say, an economy sim? Then it's my real name.
Do I play as a human in a RPG? Then it's my first name, but with alterations to it (e.g. Stephan --> Stephanus) (<-- not my real name)
Do I play as a dwarf in a RPG? Then I make up a "dwarfish" sounding name.
Do I play some game where I am an Asian character? Then I'll always use the name that I made up when I was 12, while I was competing for Japan in "Summer / Winter Games" on my C64.
Do I play something with a "three-letter-highscore"-chart? Then I'll always use my nickname.