From Laura Cruz to Lara Croft
The name change was part of a broader redesign of Tomb Raider’s central character. Early in development, designer Toby Gard imagined Laura Cruz as a South American adventurer. As the project took shape, the team moved away from that concept and developed the British archaeologist who became Lara Croft.
That shift changed more than the name: it helped give the game a protagonist whose background and presentation fit the identity the developers were building for her. Eidos executives reportedly worried that “Laura Cruz” would feel unfamiliar to players in the United Kingdom. The team settled on “Lara Croft,” with the surname reportedly found in a phone book.
A small decision with a long afterlife
Names are among the first signals a game gives players about who its hero is. “Lara Croft” was short, distinctive, and easy to recognize in titles, packaging, and conversation. Once Tomb Raider became a hit, that name became inseparable from the series—and from a character whose final design was quite different from the original Laura Cruz concept.
The change shows how a game character can evolve through practical decisions as well as creative ones: a different name helped mark the distance between an early idea and the adventurer players came to know.
