Usually, when the name choice option is available, I'd wind up calling the character something stupid, like "Mr. T" for Barret in FF7 comes to mind.
And when you've played the game a few times, you'll know some of the dialogue or names that change, so you could go and rename Rinoa's stupid dog and call him "Anal", just so one of his attacks becomes "Anal Cannon".
Hehe.