The Last of Us Part 2Remastered includes an unlockable bonus costume that confirms Ellie’s surname is Williams for the first time within the games themselves.
One of the things that The Last of Us fans love so much about the series is how in-depth it goes into Joel and Ellie’s characters. Over the course of two games, we get to know them both pretty well, from their motivations and personalities to their backstory. That being said, there’s one bit of information about the pair that’s a little harder to come by - their surnames.
For whatever reason, despite originally being included in design documents and being left in the Japanese manual, the original release of The Last of Us left out Joel and Ellie’s last names completely, leaving fans guessing what they might be. Joel’s surname was later confirmed to be Miller in The Last of Us Part 2 (and then retconned into the first game thanks to a more detailed look at his FEDRA ID), but Ellie’s surname has remained a little more mysterious.
Neil Druckmann has previously confirmed on social media that Ellie’s surname is Williams, but it’s something that hasn’t ever been mentioned in any of the games themselves,only being hinted at in Left Behind when Ellie puts a password into the photo booththat has the same number of letters.
After more than ten years, we’ve finally got something in-game that confirms Ellie’s surname.As pointed out by Redditor tomdurnell, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered features an unlockable costume for Ellie that puts her in a spacesuit. This is an obvious reference to Ellie’s love of space and the scene in Part 2 where her and Joel visit a museum, but there’s actually a more interesting detail that’s a bit harder to spot.
HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us also confirms that Ellie’s surname is Williams, as the credits at the end of each episode show the full names of every character.
If you look closely at the space suit, you can see that it includes a name tag that reads “E. Williams”, which confirms once and for all that Ellie’s canonical surname is and always has been Williams. It’s not clear why it’s been left out of the games for so long, but at least The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered has ended any speculation on what it might be.
