First, a few notes:
1) Always back up your saves before attempting this, especially if it's a character I'm not hosting,

2) I was sent the options below. I am not "supporting" any of them, please don't ask me questions about the processes because I'll probably pretty much just say "I don't know." I haven't done any of these myself. If it seems too complicated, don't try it - Especially the Hex editing solution.

3) If doing this ends up glitching your save out somehow, I'm sorry, but there's really nothing I can do about it. If I start hearing this is common, I'll take down the page, though I know a few people have tried it without problems so far.

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Option #1:

*NOTE* - I've been told this ONLY WORKS if you rename the character something that has the same number letters as the original character. So if the save's name is John, you must rename it another name with 4 letters in it. If the downloaded Shepard's name is German, then your new Shepard's name should have 6 letters, etc.

1. Download a save that interests you

2. Put the save in .\My Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save\ME1 for windows XP, or C:\Users\\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save\ME1 for Vista / 7

3. Extract the file with 7-Zip or Winrar (it works) to a directory that is named as the file

Easy example: - File is called "Char_01-60-2-1-0-9-1-2010-18-55.MassEffectSave"
Extract it to a directory called: Char_01-60-2-1-0-9-1-2010-18-55

4. Go into the directory and open the file called "player.sav" with Notepad++
URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/ - or something similar.

5. If you know the "name" of the hero, do a search and replace i.e. in the example file above the hero was named Lydia, and I wanted her to be Jane, so if you use Notepad++ press Ctrl-H for easy search-and-replace, then save.

6. Re-zip the contents of the folder, and rename the zip file so it matches the original. IE, Char_01-60-2-1-0-9-1-2010-18-55.MassEffectSave

7. Copy it back to the directory you used in step 2 (Which should be the parent directory of the one with the two .sav files,) overwriting the original.

--Note that it must be a zip, not a rar or anything else. Easiest thing to do in Windows 7 is to select the two files, right click, and select send to -> compressed folder, which will create something called player.zip or state.zip, depending on which you selected first. When you rename it, you may also have to tell windows to display extensions (it's a toggle in folder options) or it might not let you get rid of the .zip at the end of the file.

8. Start Mass Effect 2. When you go to import, the name will be blank on the first selection screen, but will be filled in once you view the details and it should import fine from there.

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Option #2: (Recommended)

Download gibbed's Save Editor from the mods list.

1. Expand the player-menu in, after loading your savegame into the editor.

2. Find the "First name" variable, and change it to whatever you like.

3. Save your game. Done.

See pic here

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Option #3

Sent in by another reader for those of you who know how to use a hex editor:

If you wish to change to a shorter name (instead of one of the same length) you can make the change with a hex editor, and overwrite the rest of the string with zeroes. It appears to be stored as a standard null-terminated C string. I haven't tried inserting a longer null-terminated name, which might work unless the file keeps track of where things are by storing offsets.