Civil War Name Generator

Period-accurate 1860s names for soldiers, officers and civilians

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Generate authentic American Civil War era names: Yankee farm boys and Southern planters' sons, Irish and German immigrant privates, USCT soldiers, Louisiana Creoles, officers with rank, camp nicknames and the wives, nurses and sisters back home, all built from real 1860s given names and regional surnames.

About Civil War names

Civil War names sound right when the given name comes from the Bible or from American hero-worship and the surname fits the region. Men born in the 1830s and 1840s were Ezekiel, Josiah, Hiram, Silas, Cyrus, Amos and Lemuel, or carried a whole statesman as a first name: Thomas Jefferson Haskins, Andrew Jackson Pettigrew, Francis Marion Lockhart. Women were Lucinda, Harriet, Permelia, Sophronia and Matilda, with diminutives like Sallie, Mattie, Hattie and Lizzie used in letters and on headstones alike. Puritan virtue names (Thankful, Patience, Comfort) still survived in New England, and Southern girls were named for states: Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri.

Surnames carry the geography. Union regiments were full of New England names like Whitcomb, Peabody and Sanborn beside Irish Brigade names (Mulcahy, Rafferty, Shanahan) and the German names of Missouri and Ohio units (Eberhardt, Pfeiffer, Osterhaus). Confederate rolls mix Tidewater planter names (Fitzhugh, Taliaferro, Pendleton), Scots-Irish hill-country names (McAllister, Caudill, Hatfield) and Louisiana Creole names (Boudreaux, Thibodeaux, Guidry). United States Colored Troops rolls show freedmen choosing surnames like Freeman, Liberty and Newman, or classical first names such as Scipio and Cato.

This list mixes all of those, plus middle-initial forms, ranked entries from private to general, and camp nicknames, for reenactor personas, historical fiction, tabletop campaigns and family-history placeholders.

How to choose Civil War names

  • Pick the region first, then the name: a New England corporal is Ephraim Shattuck, a Georgia private is Pinkney Scruggs, and a Wisconsin German is Gottlieb Hoffmann. The surname tells the reader where the character enlisted.
  • Soldiers almost never used full formal names in camp: Ezekiel is Zeke, Hezekiah is Hez, Lafayette is Fate, and Jubal is Jube. Use the short form in dialogue and the full form on the muster roll.
  • Middle initials were a mark of respectability on letters and rosters, so Thaddeus J. Whitcomb reads like a clerk or lieutenant while plain Thad Rowlett reads like a farm boy.
  • Give officers older, weightier names and privates plainer ones. Colonel Archibald Rhett and Major Ambrose Kimball feel like gentry; Bud Rountree and Lem Hightower feel like the ranks.
  • For women on the home front or in hospitals, pair a classic given name with a family surname already used for a soldier (Clara Winthrop, Lucy Wickham) so letters home feel like they belong to the same family.

Frequently asked questions

What were common names for Civil War soldiers?

Muster rolls are dominated by John, William, James, George, Thomas, Charles, Henry and Samuel, but the names that feel most distinctly 1860s are the Old Testament and statesman names: Ezekiel, Josiah, Hiram, Silas, Cyrus, Amos, Jedediah, Thaddeus, Lafayette, Washington and Jefferson. Many men also went by nicknames like Zeke, Jube, Wash and Hez.

How do I tell a Union name from a Confederate name?

Mostly by surname and region. Northern units leaned New England Yankee (Peabody, Whitcomb), Irish (Mulcahy, Keegan) and German (Eberhardt, Zimmermann). Southern units leaned Tidewater planter names (Taliaferro, Fitzhugh), Scots-Irish (McAllister, Hatfield), Deep South names (Pruitt, Yarbrough) and Louisiana Creole names (Boudreaux, Landry). Given names overlapped heavily on both sides.

Are these names good for reenacting or a first-person impression?

Yes. Each entry combines a given name and a surname that were both in use in the 1860s, with region-appropriate pairings, so they work as impression names for Union or Confederate reenactors, living-history programs and period letters. The ranked and nickname entries give you a camp name and a roster name for the same persona.

Are any of these real historical people?

Not intentionally. The given names and surnames are real and period-appropriate. The combinations are invented and we tried to avoid well-known figures, but common names belong to many real people and 1860s muster rolls are long, so a match with an actual soldier is possible. They are meant for fiction, games, reenacting and school projects; search a name before using it for anything public.

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All 500 Civil War names

This is the complete list the generator above draws its random batches from, sorted A to Z and grouped by first letter.

Plain text, one name per line.

A: 51 names

  • Aaron Newhall
  • Abe Vandiver
  • Abel Greer
  • Abigail Whipple
  • Abner Doolittle
  • Abraham Delaney
  • Abram Ostrander
  • Absalom Brumley
  • Absalom Pruitt
  • Achille Thibodeaux
  • Achsah Hatch
  • Ada Middleton
  • Adelaide Eure
  • Adolph Schaefer
  • Albert Spofford
  • Alcide Landry
  • Alexander Crawford
  • Alfred Blount
  • Alfred E. Tidwell
  • Alfred Grigsby
  • Almira Bartlett
  • Alonzo Penfield
  • Alvah Merriweather
  • Amanda Hazelwood
  • Amasa Gale

A, continued

  • Ambrose Kittredge
  • Amos "Whistling" Tuttle
  • Amos Sanborn
  • Ancil Clodius
  • Anders Bjornstad
  • Andrew Jackson Pettigrew
  • Angus MacLeod
  • Annis Hubbard
  • Anstis Carpenter
  • Anton Weidemann
  • Antonio Bellucci
  • Arabella Mead
  • Aristide Mouton
  • Arkansas Rountree
  • Arthur Q. Hadley
  • Asa McAllister
  • Asa Mott
  • Asa Putnam
  • Asbury Whitehurst
  • Asenath Risley
  • August Zimmermann
  • Augusta Pfeiffer
  • Augustus Redfield
  • Aurelia Suggs
  • Avis Hazard
  • Azélie Fontenot

B: 19 names

  • Barent Staats
  • Barnabas Tuttle
  • Barnwell Huger
  • Bartholomew Shanahan
  • Barzillai Mead
  • Bascom Lyle
  • Benoni Carver
  • Bernard Sullivan
  • Bernhard Eckhardt
  • Betsey Hyde
  • Betsy Taliaferro
  • Beverly Mason
  • Beverly Tucker Lightfoot
  • Boone McCoy
  • Bud Rountree
  • Buford Mabry
  • Bugler Jonah Sprague
  • Bushrod Pendleton
  • Byrd Taliaferro

C: 44 names

  • Caesar Bracewell
  • Calhoun Pickens
  • Calvin Winthrop
  • Camille Delacroix
  • Captain Beverly Ruffin
  • Captain Dennis Flaherty
  • Captain Heinrich Steinbrenner
  • Captain Josiah Ashworth
  • Carl Steinhoff
  • Carolina Gilchrist
  • Caroline Tuttle
  • Catherine Devaney
  • Cato Manning
  • Charity Hatcher
  • Chauncey Baldwin
  • Chloe Freeland
  • Christian Kessler
  • Clara Winthrop
  • Clarinda Bolles
  • Clarissa Dorsey
  • Clémence Broussard
  • Clinton Suggs

C, continued

  • Colin Moncrief
  • Colonel Archibald Rhett
  • Colonel Cyrus Wainwright
  • Colonel Lucius Beverley
  • Colonel Thomas Cavanagh
  • Color Sergeant Isaiah Goodwin
  • Columbus "Lum" Strickland
  • Comfort Bickford
  • Content Arnold
  • Cornelia Hartwell
  • Cornelius Doherty
  • Cornelius Ten Eyck
  • Corporal Elias Hackett
  • Corporal Jasper Haines
  • Crockett Houston
  • Cudjo Bright
  • Cullen Tarpley
  • Custis Fitzhugh
  • Cy Birdsong
  • Cyrus "Deacon" Mead
  • Cyrus W. Ledbetter
  • Cyrus Wadsworth

D: 25 names

  • Daniel Mulligan
  • Daniel Webster Overbay
  • Darius Farrar
  • Deidamia Brackett
  • Delia Ashby
  • Delos Cowles
  • Delphia Hargrove
  • Delphus Tanksley
  • Dennis Mulcahy
  • Desire Lombard
  • DeWitt Clinton Harlow
  • Dietrich Vogel
  • Dinah Liberty
  • Doak Boyd
  • Domenico Pascucci
  • Donald Farquhar
  • Dorcas Doolittle
  • Dorsey Clodfelter
  • Dossey Newsom
  • Dozier Pike
  • Drayton Heyward
  • Drummer Boy Eli Tuck
  • Dudley Sanborn
  • Duncan Fraser
  • Dwight Buxton

E: 35 names

  • Ebenezer Sturgis
  • Edwin L. Brumfield
  • Elbert Kinsolving
  • Eleazar Dyer
  • Eleazer Darby
  • Eli Thurston
  • Elihu Kellogg
  • Elijah "Old Flint" Prewitt
  • Elijah Hartwell
  • Elijah P. Ridgeway
  • Eliphalet Nutting
  • Elisha Blevins
  • Eliza Ann Satterfield
  • Elizabeth Catherine Royall
  • Elizabeth Thornbury
  • Ellen Shanahan
  • Ellsworth Fisk
  • Elmer Hazen
  • Emeline Goodrich
  • Emil Hartung
  • Emile Villeré
  • Enos Wheelock
  • Ephraim Shattuck
  • Erik Sandberg
  • Ernst Kreutzer
  • Estella Hicks
  • Esther Gentry
  • Eugene Donovan
  • Euphémie Landry
  • Evan Llewellyn
  • Evangeline Mangum
  • Ewing Patterson
  • Ezekiel "Tall Zeke" Bannister
  • Ezekiel Sprague
  • Ezekiel Thornbury

F: 10 names

  • Fanny Overton
  • Fergus Crichton
  • Fernando Parmenter
  • Florian Hausmann
  • Francis Marion Lockhart
  • Franklin Pierce Kearns
  • Franz Osterhaus
  • Frederick Bascomb
  • Frederika Hoffmann
  • Freeman Perkins

G: 15 names

  • Garland Faison
  • Garrett Finnegan
  • Garrett Montgomery
  • General Hezekiah Farnsworth
  • Gershom Coffin
  • Gibson Hoke
  • Gilbert Gookin
  • Gottlieb Hoffmann
  • Green Ledbetter
  • Griffith Bowen
  • Gunnar Thorsen
  • Gustav Dreyer
  • Gustave Beauchamp
  • Guy Morehouse
  • Gwilym Penry

H: 28 names

  • Hagar Weeks
  • Hamlet Nance
  • Hannibal Rawlings
  • Hans Christian Mork
  • Hardin Royall
  • Harriet Lovejoy
  • Hattie Tolliver
  • Heinrich Eberhardt
  • Henry Clay Strickland
  • Hepzibah Carver
  • Herbert Z. Blodgett
  • Hester Hawes
  • Hez Yarbrough
  • Hezekiah Dwight
  • Hezekiah Logan
  • Hippolyte Hebert
  • Hiram "Preacher" Goins
  • Hiram B. Overbay
  • Hiram Lovejoy
  • Hollis Bickford
  • Hopestill Tweed
  • Horace Farnham
  • Hosea Dillard
  • Hosea Stebbins
  • Hosmer Peck
  • Hugh O'Rourke
  • Huldah Greenough
  • Huw Prothero

I: 11 names

  • Ichabod Burnham
  • Idella Scruggs
  • Ignatius Plowman
  • Ira Bradstreet
  • Ira Byrum
  • Isaac Bogardus
  • Isaac N. Tolliver
  • Isaac Newman
  • Isabella Brewster
  • Israel Putnam Corliss
  • Ithamar Rundlett

J: 33 names

  • Jairus Brackett
  • James Madison Crowder
  • Jane Brayton
  • Janos Kovacs
  • Jared Treadwell
  • Jarvis Ledford
  • Jedediah Stockbridge
  • Jefferson Tate
  • Jemima Armstrong
  • Jeptha Ewing
  • Jeremiah Cotesworth
  • Jeremiah Dougherty
  • Joab Whittemore
  • Joanna Tillinghast
  • Job Farnsworth
  • Joel Stickney
  • Johann Gerlach
  • Johanna Brannigan
  • John Wesley Calloway
  • Jonah Aldrich
  • Jonah Ridgeway
  • Jonas Upham
  • Josephine Clayborne
  • Joshua Bannister
  • Josiah "Bulldog" Crowder
  • Josiah Pemberton
  • Jozef Krzyzanowski
  • Jubal Hatfield
  • Jube Hollingsworth
  • Jules Leboeuf
  • Julia Fauntleroy
  • Juno Bannister
  • Jupiter Ellison

K: 5 names

  • Kate Rutledge
  • Kazimierz Dombrowski
  • Kinchen Battle
  • Knud Amundsen
  • Konrad Reinhardt

L: 37 names

  • Lachlan Menzies
  • Lafayette "Fate" Hobbs
  • Lafayette Bellamy
  • Lafayette Waddell
  • Lars Gundersen
  • Laszlo Halasz
  • Lavinia Pruitt
  • Lawrence Gallagher
  • Leafy Tuck
  • Leander Gilchrist
  • Lem Hightower
  • Léonce Prudhomme
  • Levi Angell
  • Levi Cushing
  • Lewis Cass Tumlin
  • Lewis Meredith
  • Lieutenant Thaddeus Prescott
  • Lieutenant Wiley Burress
  • Lillie Belle Stegall
  • Linus Bissell
  • Lizzie Dabney
  • Lois Ellsworth
  • Lorenzo Hawley
  • Lou Ella Hightower
  • Louisa Wadsworth
  • Louvenia Montgomery
  • Lovisa Dunklee
  • Lucian Oglesby
  • Lucien Mouledous
  • Lucinda Merriweather
  • Lucretia Stebbins
  • Lucy Wickham
  • Ludwig Pfeiffer
  • Luigi Ferraro
  • Lum Satterwhite
  • Luther G. Ratliff
  • Lyman Tisdale

M: 38 names

  • Mabel Penfield
  • Madison Pickett
  • Madison Starnes
  • Mahlon Risley
  • Major Alcide Richard
  • Major Ambrose Kimball
  • Major Edmund Gaillard
  • Malachy Costigan
  • Malcolm Ross
  • Malinda Ferguson
  • Manasseh Hatch
  • Marcellus Tweed
  • Marcus A. Strickland
  • Marcus Mangum
  • Marcus Thistlewood
  • Margaret Mulcahy
  • Marguerite Boudreaux
  • Marion Satterfield
  • Martin Quinn
  • Martin Van Buren Akers
  • Mary Ann Whitlock
  • Mary Frances Mabry
  • Matron Dorcas Pettengill
  • Mattie Caldwell
  • Mehitable Sanborn
  • Mercy Ballard
  • Micah Ashcroft
  • Milly Rawlings
  • Milton Lemmond
  • Minerva Grigsby
  • Minnie Braxton
  • Missouri Yancey
  • Montgomery Byrd
  • Morgan Vaughan
  • Moses Freeman
  • Moses Pillsbury
  • Mumford Harrison
  • Myles Hanratty

N: 16 names

  • Nabby Tillotson
  • Nancy Caroline Faison
  • Nancy Ferrell
  • Napoleon "Pole" Gatlin
  • Narcissa Bassett
  • Narcisse Dupuy
  • Nathan Cogswell
  • Nathaniel Greene Hadley
  • Nehemiah Goodrich
  • Newton Ballard
  • Nils Lindquist
  • Nimrod Ferree
  • Noah Fenner
  • Numa Guidry
  • Nurse Clara Hobart
  • Nurse Harriet Gilman

O: 15 names

  • Obadiah "Black Obie" Sealy
  • Obadiah Tilden
  • Octavia Plumley
  • Odile Guidry
  • Olive Wheelock
  • Onésime Babineaux
  • Ora Lee Whisenant
  • Oren Blanchard
  • Orlando Kirkpatrick
  • Orville S. Hazelwood
  • Oscar Heck
  • Osmyn Hyde
  • Otto Brandt
  • Ovide Chauvin
  • Owen Geoghegan

P: 21 names

  • Pascal Sutphin
  • Patience Stamper
  • Patrick Keegan
  • Peder Rasmussen
  • Perley Wiggin
  • Permelia Crabtree
  • Peter Vrooman
  • Phelim Hogan
  • Philander Hubbell
  • Philippa Bascomb
  • Phillis Newman
  • Philo Humphreys
  • Philomena Rafferty
  • Pierre Boudreaux
  • Pinckney Greer
  • Pinkney Scruggs
  • Porcher Ravenel
  • Primus Sealy
  • Prince Albert Weeks
  • Private Absalom Tidwell
  • Private Solomon Justice

Q: 2 names

  • Quash Mercer
  • Quinton Eure

R: 18 names

  • Ransom Yancey
  • Ravenel Manigault
  • Rawley Abbott
  • Rebecca Tilden
  • Redmond Cassidy
  • Relief Kittredge
  • Reuben Alden
  • Rhoda Sherwood
  • Robert Emmet Flanagan
  • Rose Mercer
  • Roxana Coffin
  • Royal Dunbar
  • Rudolph Metzger
  • Rufus Peabody
  • Rufus Pinkston
  • Russell Hawes
  • Rutger Van Wyck
  • Ruth Boatwright

S: 29 names

  • Sabra Tibbetts
  • Sallie Peebles
  • Salvatore Rinaldi
  • Sarah Frances Yarbrough
  • Sarah Jane Pendleton
  • Savannah Lyle
  • Scipio Hargrove
  • Seabury Hazard
  • Sergeant Ezekiel Pruitt
  • Sergeant Moses Freeland
  • Sergeant Patrick Lynch
  • Seth Cale
  • Shadrach Bumpus
  • Shadrack Whisenant
  • Shelby Cabell
  • Silas "Swamp Fox" Ledford
  • Silas H. Crowell
  • Silas Holbrook
  • Silence Redfield
  • Sim Wofford
  • Sophia Buchanan
  • Sophronia Greenleaf
  • Sosthène Romero
  • Squire Buchanan
  • Stark Blakely
  • Sumner Ladd
  • Surgeon Erastus Blaisdell
  • Susannah Ledbetter
  • Sven Halvorsen

T: 18 names

  • Telemachus Gault
  • Tennessee Odom
  • Texanna Vandiver
  • Thad Rowlett
  • Thaddeus "Stonefist" Hollis
  • Thaddeus J. Whitcomb
  • Thaddeus Whitcomb
  • Thankful Barrows
  • Thankful Rowell
  • Theodor Schirmer
  • Theodora Fenner
  • Theodosia Upham
  • Thirza Nutting
  • Thomas Jefferson Haskins
  • Tipton Ballew
  • Titus Harrell
  • Truman Dearborn
  • Tyler Hotchkiss

U: 1 name

  • Uriah Pettibone

V: 1 name

  • Victorine Mouton

W: 19 names

  • Wade Tazewell
  • Waitstill Hosmer
  • Washington Ferrell
  • Welcome Spooner
  • Wendell Colby
  • Wesley C. Goins
  • Weston Brayton
  • Wilbur Gentry
  • Wiley Ratliff
  • Wilhelm Faulhaber
  • Wilhelmina Eberhardt
  • Wilkes Rountree
  • Willard Goodale
  • William Tell Stroud
  • Willis Caudill
  • Wilton Bozeman
  • Winfield Scott Hanes
  • Winnie Whitfield
  • Wylie Ferguson

Z: 9 names

  • Zachary Taylor Brumfield
  • Zachary Wynn
  • Zadock Ambler
  • Zebulon Whipple
  • Zeke Purcell
  • Zenas Crowell
  • Zeruiah Swett
  • Zilpha Bellamy
  • Zimri Gage