Haha, I doubt it was for religious reasons, from what I know they're not religious and they could've chose a better last name than that if they were. Maybe my Great-grandma got married a few times and she had previously been married to someone with that name, and then kept it until she got married to my grandpa's step-Dad. My littler siblings have my name, even though they're not my Father's children - because my Mum kept that last name and never remarried. (God knows why she chose to keep it, her maiden name was 'Lane' which is lovely).

I'm not close to that side of the family. My Grandpa & Grandma ignore mine and my older sisters existence (I kid you not, they only send a card for my birthday every once in a while, yet give my cousin like £250 each every birthday and Christmas) so talking to them is not one of my favourite things to do, I actually refer to them as 'Mr and Mrs Satan'. It was my Dad who told me it was a 'family mystery' and that he has no idea. Now that my Great-grandpa is getting quite old, I send him Christmas cards and I've started visiting him again when I'm back in England so I might ask him, I'd feel a little rude though. Especially considering he's never actually told me that I'm not his biological great-granddaughter (it seems to be a little 'hush-hush' in the family, it was my Mum who told me), and I don't want to offend him or make him uncomfortable.


On a different note - I married Cassandra Goth to Timothy Riley recently in my mega-hood, just because Cassandra has my name and Timothy is the name of my boyfriend. Also my cousin is called Alexander (like Alexander Goth) - I always find that kinda weird. If I ever get Mortimer and Bella together, I make them have a daughter called Kayleigh (my sisters name). One of my little sisters has her name in the game too - Chloe Singles/Curious. Though my other siblings names haven't appeared, though Antonio Monty is quite close.
I recently found out (well not recently, but I just remembered now) that the name 'Casandra' is on the name list of baby names (maybe townies too? I don't know if they're separate lists) on Sims 3. I noticed one of the Goths (generations after Mortimer & Bella (who only had 1 kid that I can't remember the name of)) had a daughter called 'Casandra Goth' and I laughed a little.

Why are you apologising? A gay nightclub isn't exactly an insult.

I've never had a townie generate with my name or surname, but I've seen a few Sim blogs and other unrelated artistic endeavors use my real-life pseudonym before. (not to be confused with my MTS username, it's a different name.)

I haven't seen a townie named Stephanie in any of my hoods. I think it'd be surprising to see! There is a Cecil Baldwin for some random WTNVness and a Betty White though.

The grocerydelivery woman has my first name. And her last name is a street where I once lived.

Clearly you've never been to Gaia!

My name is laughably common in real life but I don't think I've ever seen it's entirety in game. The Smith family has my last name but I don't think I've ever seen a sim with my first name. At least I don't think I have I'm used to shrugging off when people have the same name as me since it's so common.

1 older sister (full), 2 little brothers (half), 2 little sisters (half).
My parents are still friends and my Dad only lived down the street. So it's still pretty close, and my Dad treats my younger siblings as his own. One of my little brothers has a different Dad to my other siblings because my Mum fell pregnant early in the relationship and found out that he was actually secretly married and already had a child on the way so she told him he wasn't allowed anything to do with my little brother. Now that my Mum's died, my Dad often takes my little brother rock climbing and stuff, they have a pretty tight father-son bond and my Dad always counts my brother as his child and people always think he is because my parents never actually divorced, they just separated because they didn't want to go through all the legal action. So we're all quite close in a sense, but my Dad doesn't have much to do with his parents anymore due to how little they cared about me and my sister and always Favorited my cousins. Whenever I mention 'family' I'm usually only referring to me, my Dad, my long-term boyfriend and my siblings.

I liked the Bunches in Sims 3, I can't remember what they all look like at the start of the game, but when I actually got round to playing them they were all adults/teenagers and it was quite fun. I'm playing the Brokes at the moment as a mixed family with the Dreamers. Darren gets on really well with Beau and Mark ("Unborn baby Broke") but Dustin isn't really warming up to him, and Angela got caught cheating on Dustin with Dirk recently. Not sure if I'm going to get them married yet, but Brandi has a bun in the oven.
EA seems to see larger families as 'hicks', I've noticed.

I am now considering giving all my newborns a second name, Gaia, in honour of Andrew's night club

Yes.
1. a random townie from Desiderata Valley has my first name.
2. a premade sim on Sims 2 PS2 version has almost similar name to me.

She's in my custom town.

I have the same first name as one of the Strangetown playables, and I do favor her a bit because of it, lol. (Mara is the name of one of my sims, by the way. It has nothing to do with my real name.) Other than that, my last name isn't in EA's name list, nor did I put it in the custom list I use. I wouldn't want a townie to pop up with my full name; that would be too weird for me. My selfsim doesn't even have my name. I gave her my penname instead. XD

My parents broke up due to money issues amongst other things. They broke up when I was about 3 or 4, and it wasn't until 4 years later my Mum had more children.
Actually my sister is the legal guardian of my brother, and her and my Step-Dad share custody of the other 3. My parents have always been on good-terms and my Dad thinks my Step-Dad is unfit, so he often takes over the role of 'Father' to the other 4.

I'm basing the "Hick" statement on the Brokes - as they live in a trailer, the Bunches (seem like 'hillbillies'), Ottomas family are seen as somewhat 'trashy' especially Peter Ottomas. When I say 'large family', I mean lots of children so the Altos and the Landgraabs are out and I'm not familiar with some of other families. So I'm somewhat basing this on the families I know of, but also I'm not American so maybe my understanding of what a 'Hick'/Hillbilly (I feel like these are all offensive terms, but I don't really know what one would call them) is different. But yeah, that's how I see the game. Though you do raise a good point about the Curious' and Capps (Albany's children) - They're a larger family and aren't like the Brokes etc. Then again, being that they live in Strangetown...

I've seen my first name in the game - my first name is Melody and there is Melody Tinker, the teen whose family shipped with OFB. I've never seen my last name in the game.

A more polite term would be "country" or "rural".

Yeah, a townie from AL... I hate her (because it makes me remember things that happen with my first and last simself XD)... but anyways, since i've replaced all the templates from the game and downloaded a Name Mod (?), I haven't see a townie with my name again... well at least not in my native language xD, because i've seen some with "K" and "H" and things in between ; v ;

I am an Indian with a fairly complicated name, so no.
Maxis has the weirdest names though. Like who actually names his/her child Goopy? It's child harassment.

Maybe it was just a nickname from somebody they found funny to add to the name list? (Goopy)

Anyway, when I come to think of it, it's rather strange that I never came across a sim with my really common last name.
Is there a way to check which last names exist in the game? (Complete list)

Oufff..I'd say, Sim Description in SimPE, sort alphabetically?
Though you would just have those in that particular 'Hood. But I mean...if you are bored and..find nothing else to do, it might be interesting.

off topic: Boredom is unfamiliar to me. I can't understand people who get bored. There is so much stuff you can do in your life
on topic: I meant more the general name list that comes with the game.
In there my common last name could be there, but I never saw it in my hoods.
But I wouldn't know if it is possible to look at it and if so then were to find it.
I'll try google if I can come up with the answer.

For the benefit of you called Gaia, or with Sims called Gaia, here's your gay nightclub in downtown Veronaville.