During development, the game was given the codename "Dylan", in reference to the singer Bob Dylan. The reason for this was because they wanted the project to be the "Bob Dylan of video games", something that gamers would be referencing for years after.

The game was originally to be titled Beyond instead of Anthem. The reason for this previous name was because of what the developers would hope the game would be about, going beyond the walls of your fort into the dangerous wilds. T-shirts were even printed with "Beyond" on them for the staff. However, less than a week before the game's public reveal at E3 in June of 2017, it was decided to use their back-up name for the game, Anthem, after they were told that securing the trademark for Beyond would be too difficult.

The game's developers weren't as enthusiastic about the new title with everyone stating "‘Well, that doesn’t make any sense—what does this have to do with anything?’"