Gold Rush Name Generator

The people who rushed to the California goldfields in 1849, to Victoria in the 1850s, and to the Klondike in 1897 were mostly young men born in the 1810s and 1820s, so they carried that generation's names: Old Testament and classical first names like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hezekiah and Cornelius on top of New England surnames such as Stoddard, Whipple and Peabody. The camps were also international: Cornish hard-rock miners ("Cousin Jacks") brought names like Trewhella and Nankervis; Irish, German, Chilean, Sonoran, French and Hawaiian miners worked alongside them; and Chinese miners were recorded in the Cantonese style of the time, often as Ah Sing or Wong Kee.

The other ingredient is the camp nickname. A man known only as Dutch Pete, Sourdough Sam or Three-Fingered Jack fits the record better than a full name, and the Klondike added its own slang: a cheechako was a newcomer, a sourdough had survived a winter. Towns and claims got the same rough humor, which is why the list includes Rough and Ready, Whiskey Flat, You Bet and Murderers Bar alongside the Mother Lode and Bonanza Creek.

Real figures such as Sam Brannan, Nellie Cashman and Skookum Jim Mason are mixed with invented but period-correct names, so you can cast a miner, a claim-jumper, a dance-hall owner or a whole mining company.