Officially, the protagonist's name in this game is "Claude". Hacking into the game's files, one can find a text string saying "DEFNAME = CLAUDE" which not only made it clear his name was Claude, but also hinted at a removed mechanic allowing the player to rename the main character. As a result, many also believe he is Claude Speed, the protagonist of GTA2.

Sam Houser claimed that the GTA3 protagonist did not have a name as he was merely the player's avatar, but would later be named "Claude" as of San Andreas, as everyone had taken to calling him that.