lara croft was originally named "laura cruz". as her backstory began to take shape and it was decided that she would become more english and that it would be a major part of who the character was, her name was changed to reflect this. according to toby gard, the idea to make her more akin to a female indiana jones was not present from the beginning. in fact, in early concepts, lara originally had a cold-blooded militaristic-type personality, but gard and the team decided to create and play up the "proper english lady" aspect of her character to establish that there was more to lara's personality and life than just her immediate actions during "tomb raider"s gameplay.