Original Fallout authors recall that not everyone on the team initially liked the iconic series title

At one point, the game was going to be called Vault 13.

In an interview with Game Informer, Interplay founder Brian Fargo said that many options were considered early on. One of them was Vault 13 — the name of the vault where the game began. Fallout co-author Leonard Boyarsky admitted that he and lead artist Jason Anderson were actively promoting this option.

Boyarsky added that the Interplay team didn't think much about the future of the series at the time and didn't realize that such a title would seriously limit possible stories. The developer admits that in retrospect it would have been a "terrible name for a series of games".

Another co-author of the project, Tim Cain, recalled that Fallout was also on the list of ideas, but was met with a cool reception. According to him, the name seemed too obvious to the team, and someone even remarked that "there won't be any radioactive fallout 80 years after the war".

The situation changed when Brian Fargo started taking the game build home and playing it on weekends. It was then that he came to the conclusion that Fallout best reflected the essence of the project.

The team's reaction, according to Cain, was restrained, but the name eventually caught on.