Conquistador Name Generator

A conquistador name has a recognisable shape. The given name is a sixteenth-century Castilian favourite (Hernando, Gonzalo, Rodrigo, Alonso, Diego, Nuño, Lope, Álvaro, Gaspar, Cristóbal), followed either by a single surname with the particle de (Pedro de Valdivia, Francisco de Orellana) or by a patronymic plus a place or lineage name (Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Domingo Martínez de Irala). Many of the real captains came from Extremadura, so town names such as Trujillo, Medellín, Cáceres, Badajoz and Jerez de los Caballeros turn up constantly, and a Hernán is simply a clipped Hernando.

Rank and role were part of how these men were addressed. An adelantado held the royal grant to conquer a territory, a capitán led a company, a maestre de campo ran the army, and the expedition carried a veedor, tesorero and contador to guard the Crown's fifth. Friars (Fray Bartolomé, Fray Marcos) and priests marched with them, and nicknames like el Tuerto, el Mozo, el Viejo and el Bravo told one Diego de Alvarado from another. Women such as Inés Suárez, Isabel Barreto and Catalina de Erauso also held commands or crossed the ocean.

This list mixes well-known historical conquistadors with invented names built on the same patterns, plus Portuguese captains and Welser agents, for historical fiction and strategy games.