I always make a male and female character and give them the same name from my other games if possible (I gave them personality/backstories in my head, dont ask). And sometimes I make multiple characters from different classes, species, races, skin colors etc. and if I feel creative, their back story/bio. Helps if one is a creative person that likes to write stories.
If I hadn’t played female Shepard in Mass Effect, I would have missed out on Jennifer Hale voice acting. 90% of the time, I play female simply because I prefer hearing a female voice over a male voice. I hear my own all day lol.