Yes of course. What I mean is, you first figure out the background, characteristics, even a bit of stories, then find a fitting name.They might change in the last moment for some reason or another, sure, but I am certain every story writer has names in mind when creating a character (or a town or whatever have you), even if it is obvious that it might be changed because it ain't perfect yet. I would even say, those who do not care about names at all don't really care about the character that much at all in the first place even though Susan may later be Kimberley or whatever, those writers will probably (but that may be my prejudice) write sloppier stories. "Big titted redhead slut" may be how a player sees them but to a caring dev she will always be Steph.
I agree name could be an important part. What I actually means is I did not think the initial planning stage covers all the characters. I thought dev just have a rough plan about how many should be there, and then just plan them one by one, adjusting partially to players respond.Names might be the last thing...in the initial planning stages. But when writing the storyline for a character, its always better to have the name down, just to make it easier to write them or to characterise them.
For example, you have Caitlin, an Irish version of Catherine, itself derived from Greek. The meaning of Catherine can be "Pure", which fits the character of our girl in the game. She's the most pure, the most innocent and maybe the most naive. All of which plays into how she interacts with others. The fact that the Irish version is used fits in with the world she's from.
You have Naomi, her name coming from the Hebrew for "Pleasantness". It certainly fits Naomi, in that she's very pleasant and can be pleasant to be around.
Yona, another Hebrew name, this time for "Dove", a symbol of peace, which fits in that since she "died", Yona has become far more peaceable and passive in the house.
Now, I might be entirely wrong in all these names. but there is something that is true. Names give characters, well, character. They help inform us of their personality, of what we can expect and a lot more. More often than not, names are often one of the first things to be considered when it comes to planning ahead.
I do believe many natively English names used today comes from greek or latin or Hebrew because of Bible.
I actually found Naomi quite confusing. According to Wikipedia Naomi could be a Japanese name, or like you said, a name of Hebrew origin. Together with her dark appearance, I would expect she to be a barbary or asian pirate. Yet it seems dev would put her in somewhere similar to Caribbean, and zantiy is just Antilles in some haiti language.