Pragmata is a game about a girl who gets a name. For most of Capcom's lunar sci-fi thriller, Diana exists in Delphi Corporation's records as D-I-0336-7 — a production code stamped on an android built from Lunafilament, one line in an inventory of test subjects. Hugh Williams calls her Diana instead, and that single act of naming is the emotional hinge the entire story swings on. If you're building original characters in this world, that gap between a name and a designation is the thing to get right.
Two Kinds of Identity on the Cradle
Everyone and everything on the Cradle — the lunar mining outpost where the game takes place — falls on one side or the other of a hard line. Humans get real names: Hugh Williams, plain and unglamorous, the kind of name a mining contractor actually staffs a moon base with. Machines get designations: cold, procedural, built to be filed rather than remembered. Pragmata androids sit exactly on that line, carrying both at once — an official code from Delphi Corporation, and sometimes a name someone chose to give them.
Plain Western given name + surname — ordinary people in an extraordinary situation
- Hugh Williams
- Renee Okafor
- Marcus Webb
- Dale Petrov
A bestowed given name layered over an alphanumeric production code
- Diana (D-I-0336-7)
- Wren (R-K-1120-2)
- Nora (N-A-0042-9)
- Six
Type word + number — no personality implied, inventory rather than identity
- Sentinel-04
- Unit-17
- Warden-9
- IDUS-Drone 12
Why the Designation Format Matters
D-I-0336-7 isn't a random string — it's built like a real inventory code, and that's the point. Two Title Case letters, a hyphen, a four-digit number, another hyphen, a single trailing digit. It reads like something stamped by a machine, because it was. When you're naming an original Pragmata android for a fan project or a tabletop campaign set on the Cradle, keep that structure intact rather than reaching for something that just sounds sci-fi. A designation that's actually formatted like a production code sells the world far better than an invented word with a hyphen jammed in the middle.
- Give Pragmata androids a soft, simple given name alongside their formal designation
- Keep human names plain and real-world — Hugh Williams, not Captain Anything
- Format bot unit names as type-word-plus-number, nothing more
- Let a formal title (Dr., Director, Chief Engineer) signal Delphi Corporation rank
- Give a security bot a human first name — bots are assigned functions, not identities
- Reach for high-fantasy suffixes like "-thorn" or "-blade" — this is hard sci-fi, not swords and sorcery
- Use ALLCAPS, digits, or leetspeak on human or bestowed android names
- Give an android a family surname — Pragmata don't have lineages, they have production runs
What a Name Signals About Rank on the Cradle
Delphi Corporation officials sit at the formal end of the human register. Dr. Neil Higgins isn't just a name — the title does real work, marking him as someone with institutional authority over the Pragmata program. A chief engineer or a director gets the same treatment: rank first, name second, the whole thing reading like it belongs on a memo header. Field investigators like Hugh don't carry that weight. They're staff, not executives, and their names should sound like it.
The Spectrum from Designation to Name
It helps to think of every character on the Cradle as sitting somewhere on a line between "pure designation" and "pure name." IDUS units sit at the cold end — Sentinel-04 will never be anything but a function. Delphi executives sit close behind them, formal but still human. Cradle investigators sit near the warm end by default, and Pragmata androids are the interesting case: they start at the designation end and, if the story lets them, drift toward a real name the same way Diana did.
IDUS security/worker bot — Sentinel-04, Unit-17
Pragmata android — D-I-0336-7 on paper, Diana in practice
Cradle investigator — Hugh Williams, no designation attached at all
Writing for the Cradle's Corporate Horror
Delphi Corporation's whole operation runs on treating Pragmata androids as inventory rather than people, and the naming convention is doing quiet world-building work whether you notice it or not. A designation-only character reads as disposable. A character who's earned a real name reads as someone the story has decided to care about. If you're writing original fiction set on the Cradle, that's a lever you can pull deliberately — introduce a character by designation, then let a name arrive later as a turning point, the way the game itself does with Diana.
If you need names for the machines beyond the Cradle's specific designation format, our robot name generator covers naming conventions for mechanical characters more broadly.
Common Questions
Why does Diana have both a name and a designation?
D-I-0336-7 is her formal production code from Delphi Corporation — the label she's given as a manufactured test subject. "Diana" is the name Hugh Williams gives her partway through the story, once she's stopped being inventory to him and started being someone he's responsible for. The game keeps both in play deliberately: the designation is what Delphi calls her, the name is what Hugh calls her, and the distance between those two labels is the point.
Do all Pragmata androids get names, or just Diana?
Within the story, most Pragmata are referred to by designation only — Diana is unusual precisely because someone bothered to name her. If you're inventing original Pragmata characters, you can use that same rarity for effect: a named android signals a relationship or a turning point, while a designation-only android reads as background inventory, still awaiting (or never getting) that moment.
Should IDUS security bots ever get real names instead of unit designations?
Generally no — that's what separates them from Pragmata androids in the naming logic. Security and worker bots are pure Delphi Corporation inventory with no narrative arc toward personhood, so a type-word-plus-number designation (Sentinel-04, Warden-9) keeps that distinction clear. If a bot in your story does develop a personality or switches allegiance, that's exactly the moment where breaking the designation format and giving it a real name would land hardest.
What's the right format for a Pragmata designation code?
Follow the pattern the game establishes with D-I-0336-7: two Title Case letters, a hyphen, a four-digit number, another hyphen, and a single trailing digit. Skipping the hyphens or using periods instead breaks the "manufactured inventory tag" feel that makes the format work — it should read like something stamped by a machine, not typed by a person.
