What happens if you change the "names" file in the middle of a game?

You know, the file that has a list of all the names used to randomly generate characters. What happens if I add more characters to that when the game has already begun? What if I take away characters that are already in the game?

If you remove a name and its in use in the save file you are very likely to crash - you could change the name that is displayed quite safely by just using
{a} = b translation in the data/text file - adding is less likely to be a problem. The removal you could probably test quite easily, just remove one you know was definitely in use and then try to re-load.

I have in the past tried playing on a campaign after changes that I wasn't quite sure where save game compatible (changing location of UI portraits to mod-folder was one) generally speaking things did seem to go buggy afterwards making process quite useless for testing mod! Its not something I'd recommend, if you're developing mod can't you give yourself a second install so you keep playing out last version whilst developing second?

Thanks.