Actually, that's the method I use. I sometimes start with a record and let TC do some mapping... but then I go back and redo most if not all the mapping manually, adding criteria, adjusting values to have wildcards, adding in things like "Required Children" and conditional mode calls.
Plenty of documentation in the help file about how to map objects. Give it a try! I think you'll find that, by doing manual mapping, you'll end up with both a more robust and flexible NameMapping scheme but even a more intimate knowledge of how the application is constructed so you can better write the actual tests.