Pro Tip: Don't.
If you want to customize a character, it takes a lot of work for not a tremendous amount of reward. Sure, it can be done, but it really is a lot of work. That said, if you're going to do it, you really need to use numbers. Something like a name is just enormous piles of work for no reason at all (really, no one is super-impressed when in your game, the game mentions your own name just because you typed it in). If you must track stats like strength and health, that's not nearly as difficult and can create some fun effects.
