Midwest Name Generator

Midwestern names are a record of who settled the region in the nineteenth century. Germans came in the largest numbers, which is why Schmidt, Mueller, Krueger, Hoffmann and Zimmerman fill phone books from Ohio to Nebraska. Norwegians and Swedes concentrated in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, leaving Olson, Gunderson, Halvorson, Lindqvist and every -son and -strom variant. Poles settled Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit (Kowalski, Wisniewski, Szymanski), Czechs spread across Iowa and Nebraska (Novak, Dvorak, Hruska), Dutch Reformed families clustered in western Michigan and northwest Iowa (Van Der Berg, De Vries, Hoekstra), Finns worked the Upper Peninsula mines (Maki, Lahti, Koski), and Amish and Mennonite communities in Indiana, Ohio and Kansas carry Yoder, Troyer and Friesen.

First names split by generation. The oldest cohort has Orville, Vern, Marlys, LaVonne and Delores; the boomers are Gary, Dale, Karen, Debbie and Linda; Gen X and millennials brought Todd, Jodi, Kyle, Ashley and Tyler; and today's kids are Brynlee, Jaxon, Paisley and Colton. Scandinavian-rooted families still reach for Ingrid, Anders and Soren.

To build a convincing Midwestern character, match the surname to a real settlement pattern and the first name to the right decade of birth.