One of the first decisions that players will make in Monster Hunter Rise is during character creation. At this point, players choose the gender of their hunter, what they look like, and assign them a name as well. Since players can't claim to have perfect foresight, there are bound to be instances where one might want to change their hunter's name. For those wondering where or how to do this, the short answer is that unfortunately, players cannot change their character's name once character creation is finalized. This means that, barring creating an entirely new character, players are stuck with the name they chose at the beginning of the game.
Monster Hunter Rise places an emphasis on character names that isn't present in a lot of games. In many online interactions, a player's name will appear as their username rather than the name of their actual character, but this isn't the case here. Whenever a player goes online, their fellow hunters will see their actual character name.
While players can't change their character's name, they are able to change just about everything else about them. If players enter their house, they are able to change basic things about their appearance, and obviously the armor that they wear changes as players craft and equip new sets. That said, just like the hunter's name, their body type cannot be changed after character creation either. These limitations seem somewhat arbitrary, but at least with the latter example there are body type specific armors.
Players may not be able to change their own name, but they can change the names of their buddies. Both Palicoes and Palamutes can be named when they are first hired, but the player can also change their name at any point after that. In order to do this, players will need to head to the Buddy Plaza and speak to the Buddy Scout named Iori. In this menu, players can choose a new name for any of their Buddies, so at the very least not all names are set in stone once they are decided.
Although there is no way to change the hunter's name at the moment, it may be something that is added to Monster Hunter Rise in the future. As this game is still very new, it's entirely possible that more features and content will be added in over time, especially those features relating to quality of life changes such as this.
Monster Hunter Rise is available now on Switch.