Male Pirate Name Generator

Rogues, captains and deckhands of the Golden Age

Professions & Roles500 names

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Generate pirate names for men: plain Golden Age names like Josiah Penrose, nicknamed rogues like Mad Jack Farrow, captains like Captain Ambrose Thorne, crew like Bosun Amos Keel and sea rovers from other coasts like Joost van der Meer.

About male pirate names

Every name on this list is a man's name. The main pirate name generator mixes men, women, joke names and fantasy names, and the female pirate name generator is the sister page to this one. Here you get the men of the crew, from the captain down to the cabin boy.

The pirates of the Golden Age, roughly 1650 to 1730, were mostly working sailors, so their names were the ordinary names of the ports they came from. That is why the list leans on Old Testament first names that were common in Protestant England and its colonies (Josiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah) and on West Country, Cornish, Welsh, Scots and Irish surnames such as Penrose, Prosser and Halloran. Nicknames were common at sea, and they usually pointed at a look, an injury, a habit or a home port: Red Rafe Dunstan, Three-Finger Tom, Bristol Bob Coombe.

Rank names follow how a pirate ship was run. The quartermaster, chosen by the crew, stood next to the captain, and the bosun, gunner, carpenter and surgeon were skilled posts. The list also holds Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Scandinavian sea rovers, plus a few Mediterranean corsairs with the title Reis, which means captain.

How to choose male pirate names

  • Pick the origin first. An English or Welsh name fits a Caribbean crew out of Nassau or Port Royal, a French one fits the buccaneers of Tortuga, and a Dutch one fits a rover working out of Curaçao.
  • Build a nickname from one plain fact about the man: his hair, a missing finger, his old trade or his home port. Short-Fuse Mick Daggett and Deptford Joe Bagley both tell you something before he speaks.
  • Use the rank names to fill a ship quickly. One captain, a quartermaster, a bosun, a gunner, a carpenter and a cook give a game master a working crew in six picks.
  • Mix the styles within one crew. Real crews were drawn from many ports, so Josiah Penrose, Joost van der Meer and Kofi Mensah can share a deck.
  • For a party or a children's story, take the gentler nicknames such as Plum Duff Davy, Weevil Will or Copper Pot Pete.

Frequently asked questions

What are some good male pirate names?

For a nicknamed rogue try Mad Jack Farrow, Black Tom Harker or Silas "Gallows" Finch. For a captain, Captain Ambrose Thorne or Captain Elias Wolfe. For a plain period name that sounds like a ship's muster roll, Josiah Penrose or Ezekiel Tonkin.

Are these the names of real pirates?

No. The list was drafted as invented names in period style, and it leaves out the historical figures that the main pirate name generator includes. The first names and surnames are common ones, so a name can match a real person by chance.

What were the ranks on a pirate ship?

The captain led in a fight, and the quartermaster spoke for the crew and shared out the plunder. Below them came the sailing master, bosun, gunner, carpenter, surgeon and cooper. The list uses these as titles, as in Quartermaster Daniel Mayhew, Bosun Amos Keel and Gunner Job Battersby.

Where can I find pirate names for women?

Use the female pirate name generator, which is the counterpart to this page. The main pirate name generator mixes both, and the pirate captain name generator has captains of either sex.

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All 500 male pirate 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: 22 names

  • Abel "Albatross" Wynn
  • Abel the Able
  • Absalom Mabbott
  • Adriaan Schoonhoven
  • Afonso Teixeira
  • Alasdair Kinnaird
  • Alonso Villalobos
  • Ambrose "Sharkbait" Pym
  • Ambrose Catchpole
  • Amos "Mainbrace" Tarrant
  • Amos Codd of Barbados
  • Amos Durrant
  • Amos the Left-Handed
  • Anders Bjørnstad
  • Angus "Claymore" MacRae
  • Angus Balfour
  • Angus the Anchor
  • Anselme Dufresne
  • Armand Thibodeaux
  • Asa "Ashes" Colby
  • Asa Holloway
  • Augustine Pettigrew

B: 30 names

  • Bald Bartholomew Goad
  • Baltasar Quintero
  • Bandy-Legged Bob
  • Barnaby "Powderkeg" Rusk
  • Barnaby Lockyer
  • Barnaby the Bold
  • Barnacle Bart Chubb
  • Bartolo Reyes of Havana
  • Bastiaan Kok
  • Bertrand Lemaire
  • Big Jonas Underhill
  • Bilge Bill Crask
  • Bilge Rat Ben
  • Black Flag Finn
  • Black Hugh of Tortuga
  • Black Ivor of Milford Haven
  • Black Tom Harker
  • Blaise Pelletier
  • Blunderbuss Barney Fogg
  • Boarding-Axe Abe
  • Bosun Amos Keel
  • Bosun Dick Hobbs
  • Bosun Ned Catt
  • Bosun Reuben Slocombe
  • Bosun Seth Quiller
  • Bosun Tam Lugger
  • Bosun Will Pender
  • Brass Button Bart
  • Bristol Bob Coombe
  • Broadside Ben Bramwell

C: 62 names

  • Cabin Boy Colin Wren
  • Cabin Boy Jamie Knott
  • Cabin Boy Sam Odgers
  • Caleb "Rattlebones" Shaw
  • Caleb Hannaford
  • Caleb the Cold
  • Callum Rennick
  • Cannon Cal Hardcastle
  • Captain Ambrose Thorne
  • Captain Anthony Helyar
  • Captain Benjamin Wetherby
  • Captain Christopher Redfern
  • Captain Cormac Devlin
  • Captain Elias Wolfe
  • Captain Ezekiel Thistlewood
  • Captain Gideon Marrack
  • Captain Horatio Langstaff
  • Captain Hugh Tolliver
  • Captain Jeremiah Calloway
  • Captain Josiah Blacklock
  • Captain Lachlan Strachan
  • Captain Matthias Shadwell
  • Captain Miles Penhaligon
  • Captain Nathaniel Deverell
  • Captain Owen Pendry
  • Captain Philip Rosevear
  • Captain Roger Mannering
  • Captain Rufus Arkwright
  • Captain Silas Norcross
  • Captain Solomon Bexley
  • Captain Thaddeus Godolphin

C, continued

  • Captain Walter Stannard
  • Carpenter Asa Woodruff
  • Carpenter Enoch Birch
  • Carpenter Giles Mallett
  • Carpenter Jem Paddock
  • Chen Haifeng
  • Claus Behrens
  • Clement "Clipper" Dane
  • Clement Snell
  • Cook Barnaby Haddock
  • Cook Moses Gully
  • Cook Sim Hake
  • Cooper Abel Bracken
  • Cooper Wat Tregear
  • Copper Pot Pete
  • Corentin Le Bihan
  • Cormac "Kraken" Flynn
  • Cormac Halloran
  • Cormac the Cutthroat
  • Cornelis Vandermolen
  • Cornelius "Grog" Hatcher
  • Cornelius Mudge
  • Cornish Jan Kitto
  • Coxswain Joss Alford
  • Coxswain Malachi Nankivell
  • Crab-Claw Clem
  • Crispin "Crow's Nest" Varley
  • Crispin Wadham
  • Crooked Davy Mogg
  • Cuthbert Yeo
  • Cutlass Kit Larkin

D: 28 names

  • Dafydd Penry
  • Dafydd the Deep
  • Daniel Midgett of Ocracoke
  • Dawud Reis
  • Dead-Reckoning Dick Seaton
  • Declan "Shillelagh" Byrne
  • Declan Furey
  • Declan the Dice Man
  • Denzil "Deadeye" Tregenza
  • Denzil Curnow
  • Denzil the Damp
  • Deptford Joe Bagley
  • Detlef Brandt
  • Diego Montalvo
  • Digory Nance
  • Dirk Bakhuizen
  • Doldrums Dan
  • Donal Creedy
  • Doubloon Dom Purdy
  • Dozing Davy Orchard
  • Driftwood Dan Sallow
  • Drummer Ben Hollis
  • Dry-Dock Dick
  • Duarte Figueira
  • Duncan "Dirk" Sinclair
  • Duncan Heddle
  • Dutch Hendrick Flanders
  • Dutch Piet of Curaçao

E: 19 names

  • Eamon "Blackthorn" Rooney
  • Eamon Scully
  • Eben Nickerson of Cape Cod
  • Ebenezer Swain
  • Edmund "Fairlead" Moss
  • Edmund Rashleigh
  • Eli the Eel
  • Elias "Deadlight" Crane
  • Elias Trewin
  • Enoch the Silent
  • Enoch Tozer
  • Ephraim Dabney
  • Erik Sandvik
  • Esteban Carranza
  • Étienne Lacroix
  • Evan Meredith
  • Ezekiel "Brimstone" Hale
  • Ezekiel the Elder
  • Ezekiel Tonkin

F: 17 names

  • Fair-Wind Finn Weatherall
  • Fergus Drummond
  • Fergus the Fearless
  • Fiddler Eamon Roche
  • Fiddler Tam Kinross
  • Fingal MacNeil of Barra
  • Fintan Leary
  • First Mate Adam Vickery
  • First Mate Jonah Eddowes
  • First Mate Joshua Tamblyn
  • First Mate Oliver Sharrow
  • First Mate Samuel Lander
  • First Mate William Hayle
  • Flintlock Phil Copley
  • Floris van Hoorn
  • Foul-Weather Jed Winter
  • French Louis Garrick

G: 33 names

  • Gabriel "Wildfire" Sykes
  • Gabriel Spargo
  • Gallows Gil Noyce
  • Gaspar Lacerda
  • Gaspard Rochefort
  • Gentleman Ned Dashwood
  • Gerrit Swart
  • Gideon "Ironside" Keane
  • Gideon the Grim
  • Gideon Wakeham
  • Giles Tuckett
  • Ginger Angus Bannock
  • Godfrey Lomax
  • Godfrey the Gilded
  • Gold Tooth Gabe
  • Gonzalo Pedraza
  • Grapeshot Gabe Skinner
  • Grapnel Giles
  • Graybeard Gideon Oldcastle
  • Grinning Joss Hackett
  • Grog-Blossom Gil
  • Guillaume Tessier
  • Gull-Eye Gus Twigg
  • Gunnar Halvorsen
  • Gunner Eli Lathom
  • Gunner Hal Spurrier
  • Gunner Isaac Brockett
  • Gunner Job Battersby
  • Gunner Mick Furze
  • Gunner Noah Cotterill
  • Gunner Zeke Raddle
  • Gunpowder Gus
  • Gwilym Prothero

H: 23 names

  • Hal "Hatchet" Brodie
  • Hal Ransome
  • Hal the Hammerhead
  • Half-Ear Hugh
  • Hamish Ogilvie
  • Hard-Tack Hobb Jessop
  • Hassan al-Tunisi
  • Helmsman Caleb Teague
  • Helmsman Fergus Carnes
  • Helmsman Kit Shillibeer
  • Helmsman Rhys Probert
  • Hendrik Smit of Saba
  • Hendrik ten Broeke
  • Hernando Castrillo
  • Hezekiah "Holystone" Webb
  • Hezekiah Noakes
  • Hinrich Lüders
  • Honoré Villeneuve
  • Hook-Hand Harry Dobbs
  • Hugh the Unhanged
  • Humphrey Scobell
  • Humphrey the Hungry
  • Hurricane Hal

I: 10 names

  • Idris Reis
  • Ifor Maddox
  • Ignacio Bermejo
  • Irish Rory Doyle
  • Iron Hugh Stoddart
  • Iron Jaw Jonas
  • Isaac "Fiddler's Green" Bray
  • Isaac the Ironmonger
  • Isaac Tucker of Bermuda
  • Isaac Varcoe

J: 30 names

  • Jabez Runnalls
  • Jack Pellow of Port Royal
  • Jacques Beaumanoir
  • Jago the Jackal
  • Jago Trevose
  • Jan Kuyper
  • Jan Moerman of Vlissingen
  • Jasper "Jolly" Roper
  • Jasper Kellow
  • Jean-Baptiste Fournier
  • Jem "Jackstaff" Oakes
  • Jem Foxley
  • Jem the Gull
  • Jeremiah "Halfmast" Pike
  • Jerónimo Salvatierra
  • Jethro "Scuttle" Banks
  • Jethro Pascoe
  • Job the Patient
  • Jonah the Unlucky
  • Jonas "Squall" Hendry
  • Jonas the Drowned
  • Jonas Widdon
  • Joost van der Meer
  • Jorge Pimentel of the Azores
  • Jory Polglaze
  • Josh Pinder of Eleuthera
  • Josiah "Saltpork" Lumley
  • Josiah Penrose
  • Josiah the Younger
  • Jürgen Harms

K: 9 names

  • Kasim of Zanzibar
  • Keelhaul Clem Gadd
  • Khalid ibn Salim
  • Kit "Cutwater" Lacey
  • Kit Earnshaw
  • Kit the Cormorant
  • Klaas Haring
  • Kofi Mensah
  • Kwame Boateng

L: 22 names

  • Lachlan Muir
  • Lambert de Wolf
  • Lars Ekström
  • Laughing Hal Whitlock
  • Lee-Shore Lem
  • Lemuel "Lanyard" Cobb
  • Lemuel Sturgess
  • Lemuel the Lean
  • Liang Dahai
  • Little Hugh Twyford
  • Llewelyn Gethin
  • Long Shanks Lew
  • Long Will Ackroyd
  • Lookout Davy Cundy
  • Lookout Evan Brisco
  • Lookout Robin Chegwin
  • Lope Zamorano
  • Low-Tide Lou
  • Luca Bonfiglio
  • Lucien Desrosiers
  • Lucky Lew Fairweather
  • Luis Aragón of Cartagena

M: 24 names

  • Maarten Dekker
  • Mad Jack Farrow
  • Madagascar Moses Poole
  • Mads Lindahl
  • Malachi "Maelstrom" Drury
  • Malachi Rowse
  • Malachi the Mutineer
  • Marlinspike Mose Sadler
  • Mast-High Matt
  • Master Gunner Abraham Clegg
  • Master Gunner Tobias Wainwright
  • Matchlock Mose
  • Mateo Arizmendi
  • Mateo Rivas of Campeche
  • Mathurin Le Goff
  • Matteo Zammit
  • Matthias the Mapless
  • Matthias Veale
  • Micah "Mizzen" Holt
  • Micah Tallack
  • Moses "Monsoon" Crewe
  • Moses Hargrave
  • Moses the Marooned
  • Mustafa of Algiers

N: 17 names

  • Nasir al-Mahri
  • Nassau Nat Ives
  • Nathaniel "Longshot" Birchall
  • Nathaniel Fenn
  • Navigator Augustine Hallett
  • Navigator Crispin Astley
  • Navigator Peregrine Lisle
  • Ned "Noose" Hawley
  • Ned Blaylock
  • Ned Rowe of Penzance
  • Nehemiah Quick
  • Nils Bergman of Gothenburg
  • Nils Holmgren
  • Noah the Twice-Wrecked
  • Noël Cadoret
  • Nuno Sardinha
  • Nuño Valdés

O: 12 names

  • Obadiah "Anchor" Stroud
  • Obadiah Crabbe
  • Olav Rønning
  • Old Abel Mossop
  • Old Barnacle
  • Old Rope-Yarn
  • Olivier Marchais
  • Omar al-Jazairi
  • One-Eyed Amos
  • Owen "Oakheart" Bowen
  • Owen Prosser
  • Owen the Oar-Breaker

P: 21 names

  • Padraig Tully
  • Pale Peter Wraith
  • Pascal Lebrun
  • Patch-Eye Pat Gallagher
  • Peg-Leg Percy Knapp
  • Peregrine the Proud
  • Peregrine Upcott
  • Peter Quarrell of Spanish Town
  • Pieces-of-Eight Pate Kemp
  • Pierre Lafleur of Petit-Goâve
  • Pieter Zeilmaker
  • Pilot Denzil Carew
  • Pilot Jethro Sandys
  • Piran Madron
  • Piran the Pilchard
  • Plum Duff Davy
  • Port Royal Roger Venning
  • Powder Monkey Nat Grimshaw
  • Powder Monkey Pip Jagger
  • Powder Monkey Toby Gorse
  • Powder Pete Burrage

Q: 7 names

  • Quartermaster Andrew Gaskell
  • Quartermaster Daniel Mayhew
  • Quartermaster Jacob Merrick
  • Quartermaster Levi Newcombe
  • Quartermaster Robert Kestle
  • Quartermaster Simeon Appleby
  • Quartermaster Stephen Ledger

R: 24 names

  • Rafe "Ratline" Sutter
  • Rafe the Reckless
  • Rahim of Muscat
  • Ralph the Rope-Maker
  • Ramrod Rafe
  • Rashid al-Bahri
  • Red Colm of Kinsale
  • Red Rafe Dunstan
  • Red Sash Rob
  • Reinier Blauw
  • Rémy Charbonneau
  • Reuben "Rumrunner" Gale
  • Reuben Skewes
  • Rhys "Riptide" Llewellyn
  • Rhys Bevan
  • Rhys the Red
  • Rodrigo Santillán
  • Roelof Visscher
  • Rope's-End Rob Tanner
  • Rowland Tremayne
  • Rui Calado
  • Rui Fontes of Madeira
  • Rum-Soaked Robin Trott
  • Rusty Ned

S: 44 names

  • Said bin Hamad
  • Sailing Master Archibald Pickard
  • Sailing Master Edmund Hexham
  • Sailing Master Nicholas Otway
  • Sailing Master Timothy Meadows
  • Sailmaker Jabez Tansley
  • Sailmaker Micah Seward
  • Salt Horse Joss
  • Salt-Eye
  • Salty Sam Gudgeon
  • Salvu Camilleri
  • Sam Coffin of Nantucket
  • Samuel "Spyglass" Whitby
  • Sandy Kerr of Leith
  • Sawbones Lemuel Dredge
  • Scotch Rab Geddes
  • Scrimshaw Zeke
  • Scurvy Ned Figgis
  • Sea-Dog Sam
  • Seamus Brannigan
  • Seamus the Storm-Caller
  • Shark-Tooth Saul Rudge

S, continued

  • Short-Fuse Mick Daggett
  • Silas "Gallows" Finch
  • Silas the Salt-Blooded
  • Silent Sim Blythe
  • Silver Buckle Saul
  • Sim the Shark
  • Simão Barreto
  • Simeon "Sextant" Hythe
  • Simeon Gedge
  • Slow-Match Matt Stokes
  • Solomon "Sovereign" Pratt
  • Solomon the Wise
  • Solomon Tickell
  • Søren Kjærgaard
  • Spanish Seb Alder
  • Squall-Line Seth
  • Squid Ink Sid
  • Squint-Eyed Zeke Oakum
  • Stormy Eli Cragg
  • Surgeon Cuthbert Welch
  • Surgeon Ralph Coverdale
  • Swift Ali of Tripoli

T: 23 names

  • Tar-Hands Tam
  • Tarik Reis
  • Tarry Tam Lidstone
  • Teunis de Boer
  • Thaddeus "Thunderhead" Boyle
  • Thaddeus the Thief of Tides
  • Thaddeus Warne
  • Thibault Granger
  • Thin Tom Rigg
  • Three-Finger Tom
  • Thunder Tobias Bulmer
  • Tiernan Cawley
  • Titus "Topsail" Garland
  • Titus Pinnock
  • Titus the Tall
  • Tobias "Bilgewater" Marsh
  • Tobias Lightbourne of Nassau
  • Tobias the Tarred
  • Tomás Ibarra
  • Toothless Thad Gammon
  • Tortuga Tim Carrow
  • Trade-Wind Tim
  • Tristão Queiroz

U: 1 name

  • Unlucky Abe Crick

V: 2 names

  • Vasco Requena
  • Vicente Morais

W: 11 names

  • Walter Ash of Saint Mary's Isle
  • Wapping Will Ingram
  • Wat "Windlass" Pruett
  • Wat Huxtable
  • Wat the Wharf Rat
  • Weevil Will
  • Welsh Evan Pritchard
  • Whalebone Walt
  • Whistling Wat Peake
  • Will Yelland of Bideford
  • Willem Hoekstra

Y: 6 names

  • Yakub Reis
  • Yankee Jonah Wilcox
  • Yann Le Floch of Saint-Malo
  • Yannis Kontos
  • Young Toby Starling
  • Yves Kerbrat

Z: 3 names

  • Zachariah "Zephyr" Noon
  • Zachariah Pengelly
  • Zebulon Furlong