German is both a given name and a surname in real life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_%28name%29
So, German is not a "bizarre choice" for names of stalkers.
Why S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is English...
I believe (and this is just speculation) that it was chosen for marketing reasons. The word Stalker is something a good percentage of people around the globe can work with, while a Russian name might only work well in Russian speaking countries. Russian people might overlook the fact that the title is English because the entire game is translated into Russian at first: Every NPC speaks Russian, everything is named Russian, it has tons of Russian weapons in it, and the environment is placed in a former Warsaw Pact country. And everyone who does not speak Russian, does not have to work with a Russian name they can't even type on their keyboards, spell or know what it means in the first place. Translating names (especially acronyms) is very tricky, without losing the context. And even if they do manage it, it would just cause their fanbase "to split" online. One half is going for the Russian community named after the Russian name, and the others for the translate one. And I guess it would also cause a lot of confusion: "Is that game I'm about to by now the great Ukraine game I heard so much about?". Or it's just that English is the language when it comes to software development ;)
Maniac Stalkers?!
In my game I was recently attacked by a stalker with a first name "Maniac" II have the screen shots of his dead body to prove it. He was a standard stalker in Zaton holding onto several other weapons. He was completely alone and attacked me on site/ I looked up on the wiki if there was any information about "maniac" stalkers but I couldn't find any whatsoever.
Has anyone had similar experiences?
NPCs spawn with random, and sometimes humorous, names. I once had a bandit that I killed named "German Shepherd", funnily enough. As for the weapons, stalkers in CoP loot bodies, if a stalker lives through enough battles it's not uncommon for them to walk around with half a dozen assault rifles in their pack. He was probably hostile due to a stray bullet or an unlucky grenade thrown by you earlier, or simply by a glitch. Unless you were playing through a bandit mission or something, which might make him hostile by default. TheDesertFox|Talk
12:26, July 14, 2011 (UTC)
Actually it was after I transfered from Yanov to Zotan and was heading to an anomoly field. This is also after I was completely done with the anti Sultan questline so all the Loners were friendly to me. Also it was his firstname "Maniac" and the fact that he showed up as hostile to me. At first I thought he was a zombie, but he was very much a lone loner who simply started attacking me. I feel so convinced X]
EDIT Wasn't logged in, just wanted to say who I was Kotyonok 01:34, July 15, 2011 (UTC)
I guess it was a glitch then, or a guy who you accidentally hit earlier somehow and held that grudge for awhile, hehe. TheDesertFox|Talk 03:43, July 19, 2011 (UTC)