Question: Ripley re Ridley?

Confess I am a noob re Alien knowledge, and am after some info thanks . Have not seen this covered in any of the sources I have read: Dan O'Bannon in the original draft script had a different name for the Ripley character (in fact ALL the character names were different to the final film). Brandywine rewrote the character names and changed the main character to a female. Was the name Ripley decided BEFORE Ridley Scott was appointed director? RS added significantly to the script/film as well. Did he influence the name? Just seems a strange coincidence: Ripley vs Ridley.