The name thing is already in the game and was there for almost a year. There just aren't any hints in the game right now about it. You will get a hint once I finish the story dungen and after you meet Mr. White properly.
But it is really nothing to get that excited about. You get some dialogue telling you some backstory and you get an item that triples your stats and stops you from aging. Nothing more yet. I want to turn this into fully fledged mode, but I simply have different priorities right now.
I'm pretty much jumping from thing to thing as I feel like. Burnout is a real thing, especialy when you work on one project alone for years. However, Sinathir is pretty big game and there is still a lot to do, so if I don't feel like programing, then I make graphics for new outfit or weapons. If I don't feel like making graphics, I write some event or quest or try making music. And if I don't feel like doing any of that, I simply think about new mechanics or altering old ones. This is how I managed to work on one single project for so long. No matter what I do, it still moves the game forward.
Your suggestion is pretty much what I have planned for the intro from the start. Instead of selecting your personality / hobby, you go through a intro section taking place before you get sent to the island. There you make several decisions and you will make asigned a character background depending on them. This will also give you different items and might alter your look a bit. This section will be mandatory for first time players, but people doing second playthrough will be able to skip it and simple select from the menu, like you do now. I want to do this section once I start making my own graphics for terrain. I don't want to work with default rmxp tilesets too much because I will be replacing all of them in the future anyway.