1. Okay so if I want my character to be referred to by their full name I should put that as both? (whether or not that's advisable)
2. That might help, I'm not really a graphic designer or anything so I don't really know what exactly would help it pop. I just know it felt like, that they blended into the mirror a bit too much, to the point where if I'd not known you could change it going in, I might have completely missed they were clickable.
3. There's another game on itch, Infinite Stars, that has Patreon tier where one of the rewards is getting to commission a player avatar for the game. Have you considered something like that as a way to add more character appearance options?