I named him "ladies"
A lot of funny dialogue was had.
"Can you go herd those animals, ladies?"

"

I always leave his name as Link, unless I do another playthrough, in which case then I usually use my own name.

"

" I named him "ladies" A lot of funny dialogue was had. "Can you go herd those animals, ladies?" "

I always leave it as Link, but there have been times I have replayed the game and called him ... unflattering things, lol sorry it is funny to see a little kid run up to you and say "Hey Bitch!"

Link

I use my own name. 
 
Also, when playing Pokemon Blue, I always used to name my rival "Ash", because despite that really being the hero's name I thought it sounded way meaner than "Gary".

I call him SID, for no good reason.

i use link and epona.
 
i personally hate using my real name in games because it just doesnt work, jethro doesnt have the same effect as "link"

Usually Link on the first playthrough, and LINK on the second. A family friend once named him Drunk Ass. It really spices up all the dialogue.

Link is his name. Renaming him would just feel wrong.

I don't know why but I've always named my Zelda characters either BOOYA!!!! or WASSSSAP! just to see what kind of funny context they'll be put into. 
 
I haven't started spirit tracks yet but I'm considering going with a subtle "Sup?" for that one.

Safaa. Came up with it when mixing names together.

ZELDA, ass, or cock

I never drop Links.

When I was like 5 I named him Ninja once, then I realized I was 5 and being dumb. It was the 80's though, so it was okay. Stuck to Link ever since then though.

Am I going straight for the second quest? No? Then of course his name is Link. I'll never understand the people who do otherwise.

My own name. Fuck conformity.

I name most of my save files ASSHOLE.

Sometimes they have a character limit so it's ASSHO.

I'm boring, I use my name.

Honestly i would think it was weird if he was named anything else.

I almost always use "Dicky" for my first time through, named after Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Been doing that since about 95.

I love the Angry Video Game Nerd so in any game where I can name my character I always call them "Anal-Bag"

Link always. I never understood the thing of using your own name in a game. I'm not playing myself, I'm playing a character and in this case he already has a name, so why wouldn't I just use that?

This made the dogtag in MGS2 slide right over my head.

Put me in the "Link on first playthrough then my own name if there is New Game +" camp. Dude's name is Link people.

I was burning out on modern Zelda games when I played Spirit Tracks. Because I didn't really care, I changed Link's name from "Link" to "Dean". It made all the difference. It helped that that particular game went in some different places, but it helped me to see Dean as a fresh new character with his own thoughts and opinions outside of being the same Link Character that I had been playing for decades.

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.

Really though I started Wind Waker HD a couple of days ago and thought about using my own name but ended up using Link. I like Link being Link.

dink

I always name him something stupid like Fart because I'm a child

Yeah I always called him Link or LINK.

I used to go with Ken when I was younger, now I tend to go for Link. I really liked the point I heard someone make recently (I forget where) that he's supposed to be the "link" between the player and the world, hence the name.

In other games it varies. I always used to use my name in Pokémon, but had to mix that up when I started playing one of the games each gen as a female after that was introduced. In fact with ORAS I ended up calling my first character "May" which is her actual name in the anime (and the game if she's your rival).

So over time I've leant more towards using canonical names, where they exist. I do still enjoy putting my own name into stuff though, or (as I tend to in a lot of RPGs and such) coming up with an original name that either fits into the lore or maybe (in MMOs) makes some kind of reference.

My FF14 characters are called Charlie Tunoku and Charlie Satonaka - the latter being named as I figured Charlie still worked for a girl and I'd gotten used to being referred to as "Charlie" in chat so I wanted to stick with that so as not to confuse myself.

Every Legend of Zelda protagonist is named Dingding. Always has been, always will be.

"Buttz"