Gunslinger Name Generator

Real gunslingers of the American West mostly had ordinary names that history dressed up with nicknames. Henry McCarty became Billy the Kid; John Henry Holliday became Doc Holliday; Robert Parker became Butch Cassidy. The pattern is a plain given name (John, Bill, Jesse, Frank, Tom) and a workaday surname, with a nickname earned from a hometown (Texas Jack, Arkansas Tom), a physical trait (Big Nose Kate, Three-Fingered Jack, Curly Bill), a profession (Doc, Preacher, Judge), or a place they were feared (The Apache Kid, The Sundance Kid). 'Kid' was the standard tag for any young gunfighter, and 'Black Jack' was so common it belonged to at least three different outlaws.

The frontier was more diverse than old movies suggest. Mexican and Tejano gunmen like Elfego Baca and Joaquin Murrieta, Black lawmen like Bass Reeves, Cherokee and Creek outlaws like Ned Christie and Cherokee Bill, and women like Belle Starr, Pearl Hart, and Rose of Cimarron all belong in the tradition, so the list includes Spanish-language nicknames (El Muerto, La Pistolera) and names from Indian Territory alongside the Anglo ones.

Use these for Westerns, Red Dead-style games, Deadlands or weird-west campaigns, and any character who solves problems with a Colt.