Mountain Man Name Generator

Rugged trapper names from the fur-trade frontier

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Generate mountain man names for frontier trappers and backwoods characters: period names like Jedediah Pruitt and Ezekiel Holt, nicknames like Grizzly Dan Hadley and Old Silvertip, voyageurs like Baptiste Giroux, Hudson's Bay men like Hamish Ogilvie, and modern loners like Buck Holloway.

About mountain man names

The mountain man era was short. The Rocky Mountain fur trade boomed in the 1820s, the first summer rendezvous was held in 1825 and the last in 1840, by which time beaver were scarce and silk hats had replaced beaver felt. The trappers came from everywhere: Kentucky and Missouri farm boys with Bible names, French-Canadian and St. Louis Creole voyageurs, Scots and Orkney men of the Hudson's Bay Company, and trappers working out of Taos. The list follows that mix, from Jedediah Pruitt and Ezekiel Holt to Baptiste Giroux, Hamish Ogilvie and Rafael Archuleta.

Nicknames were half the culture. Jim Bridger was Old Gabe and Thomas Fitzpatrick was Broken Hand, and the trade had its own slang to build from: a plew was a beaver pelt, the booshway led the brigade, a hivernant had wintered in the mountains, a pork-eater had not, and Old Ephraim was the grizzly. So Grizzly Dan Hadley, Hawken Jim Pell, Six-Traps, The Hivernant and Old Silvertip sit next to the plain names.

About one name in eight belongs to a modern backwoods character, such as Buck Holloway, Wade Stillwell or Woodstove Walt, and there are mountain women from Temperance Tuttle to Trapline Tess.

How to choose mountain man names

  • Match the name to where he came from. A Kentucky or Missouri trapper suits Hezekiah Boggs or Micajah Harlan, a voyageur suits Toussaint Gagnon, a Hudson's Bay man suits Magnus Isbister or Lachlan Gillespie, and a Taos trapper suits Vicente Lucero.
  • Let the nickname tell a story. Nine-Toes Sam Yoder and Frostbite Si Fitch had a bad winter, Tobias "Snowblind" Beck had a bright one, and Pilgrim Joe Jessup is new to the mountains.
  • Use trapper slang sparingly. One term per character is plenty, as in Plew Dorsey, Booshway Tom Hackett or Amos "Hivernant" Ferris. A whole brigade of slang names starts to read as parody.
  • For a present-day character, drop the Bible name and the buckskin. Wade Stillwell, Harlan Dockery and Hank Blackwood sound like men who heat with wood today, and Off-Grid Earl is what the neighbors call one of them.
  • Build nicknames from gear, weather, animals, injuries and rivers. Real brigades included Native, Metis, Black and Hawaiian trappers, and a nickname that mocks someone's people adds nothing to a character.

Frequently asked questions

What are good mountain man names?

Period full names such as Jedediah Pruitt, Ezekiel Holt, Thaddeus Pettigrew and Obadiah Stroud sound right for the 1820s and 1830s. For a nickname try Grizzly Dan Hadley, Buckskin Lem Crane, Snowshoe Sol Eaton or Old Silvertip. Voyageur names such as Baptiste Giroux and Etienne Lafleur fit the French side of the trade.

Are real mountain men like Jim Bridger or Jeremiah Johnson in the list?

No. The list is drafted as names for fictional characters, so the full names of famous trappers and their personal nicknames, such as Old Gabe and Broken Hand, are left out on purpose. First names like Jedediah and Jeremiah appear with different surnames. Ordinary names can still match a real person somewhere, so search one yourself before you publish it.

Does the list include Native American names?

No. Native and Metis trappers were a large part of the real fur trade, but names from Native languages belong to living naming traditions, and inventing look-alikes would be a caricature. If your story needs such a character, research the specific nation and its naming customs. Nicknames in this list come from gear, weather, animals and places instead.

Are there names for modern mountain men and for women?

Yes. About sixty entries are present-day backwoods names such as Buck Holloway, Clint Ketchum, Off-Grid Earl and Deer Camp Dave. About thirty more are women, from period names like Temperance Tuttle and Keziah Rowe to nicknames like Trapline Tess and Snowshoe Sadie.

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All 500 mountain man 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: 26 names

  • Abigail Holt
  • Abner "Trap Sack" Finch
  • Abraham Swope
  • Absalom Hawkins
  • Alasdair Chisholm
  • Alexander Foubister
  • Alexis Bourassa
  • Alonzo Calloway
  • Alpheus Fenwick
  • Amable Primeau
  • Ambrose Cantrell
  • Amos "Hivernant" Ferris
  • Amos Caudill
  • Anastacio Abeyta
  • Andrew Louttit
  • Angelique Giroux
  • Anselme Cadotte
  • Antoine Beauchamp
  • Antoine Tranchemontagne
  • Anton Hartmann
  • Archibald Moncrieff
  • Asa "High Water" Dunmore
  • Asahel Newcomb
  • Augustin Cloutier
  • Augustus Kirby
  • Aunt Keziah

B: 36 names

  • Backcountry Bo
  • Badger Hez
  • Badger Joe Tolan
  • Baptiste Giroux
  • Barnabas Whitaker
  • Basile Fontaine
  • Bayou Salade Joe Brandt
  • Bear Claw Bascom
  • Beartooth Ben
  • Beau Kincaid
  • Beaver Sam Bascom
  • Beavertail Eph
  • Benoit Lefebvre
  • Big Angus Sinclair
  • Bighorn Hi Orr
  • Birdie Whitfield
  • Bitterroot Belle
  • Bitterroot Ben
  • Bitterroot Rube Keane
  • Blizzard Bart Gaines
  • Blizzard Ben
  • Bo Maddox
  • Bonaventure Ouellette
  • Boone Whitfield
  • Booshway Tom Hackett
  • Bras-de-Fer Thibault
  • Brendan Maguire
  • Buck Holloway
  • Buckskin Bart
  • Buckskin Bess
  • Buckskin Lem Crane
  • Buffler Bart
  • Buffler Hank Thorne
  • Bull Elk Jack Weller
  • Bullboat Cal Overton
  • Bush Pilot Buck

C: 27 names

  • Cabin Fever Carl
  • Caleb "Long Shot" Marsh
  • Callum MacInnes
  • Cap'n Ike Gilliam
  • Capote Clem Rainey
  • Carcajou Jacques
  • Carcajou Pete Sloan
  • Cash Whitt
  • Casper Yoder
  • Catamount Cy
  • Catamount Zeke Pardee
  • Chainsaw Dale
  • Cimarron Rafe Moody
  • Cimarron Si
  • Clay Satterfield
  • Clint Ketchum
  • Clyde Gentry
  • Cole Brannon
  • Colin Farquharson
  • Colt Lockhart
  • Cormac Brannigan
  • Cornelius Donovan
  • Cornelius Jessup
  • Cottonwood Cal
  • Cristobal Jaramillo
  • Cyprien Landry
  • Cyrus Stout

D: 15 names

  • Dale Thornton
  • David Kirkness
  • Deacon Abe Fenwick
  • Deadfall Dan
  • Deadfall Ike Kell
  • Deep Snow Jack Pickens
  • Deer Camp Dave
  • Desmond O'Rourke
  • Dietrich Zimmermann
  • Dirk Van Dusen
  • Doc Haskell
  • Donald Urquhart
  • Dry Cabin Dan
  • Duncan Matheson
  • Dutch Tolliver

E: 26 names

  • Earl Ridgeway
  • Ebenezer Rowe
  • Edward Tait
  • Elder Craddock
  • Eleazar Ketcham
  • Eli Varney
  • Elias Tarwater
  • Elihu Musgrove
  • Elijah Tanner
  • Elisha Ragsdale
  • Elk Camp Hank
  • Elkanah Yates
  • Elspeth Sutherland
  • Emmett Shackleford
  • Enoch "Frosty" Coulter
  • Ephraim Hobbs
  • Erastus Mabry
  • Esteban Chavez
  • Ethan Neely
  • Etienne Lafleur
  • Etta Rawlings
  • Eusebio Vigil
  • Eustache Bergeron
  • Ewan Sutherland
  • Ezekiel Holt
  • Ezra "Two-Traps" Calloway

F: 15 names

  • Father Winter
  • Faustino Salazar
  • Felipe Maestas
  • Finlay Murchison
  • Fintan Gallagher
  • Flannel Floyd
  • Flintlock Finn
  • Flintlock Gus Moody
  • Floyd Vance
  • Fofarraw Lafe Embry
  • Forrest Ratliff
  • Francois Deschamps
  • Friedrich Kessler
  • Frostbite Eb
  • Frostbite Si Fitch

G: 26 names

  • Gabriel Marchand
  • Galena Ned Yeager
  • Gallatin Gus
  • Garrett Stamper
  • George Harcus
  • Germain Dumont
  • Gershom Waddell
  • Gideon "Greybeard" Reece
  • Gilbert Linklater
  • Gottlieb Bauer
  • Grady Mosley
  • Granddad Stroud
  • Grandpa Zadok
  • Granny Boggs
  • Green River Gus
  • Green River Tobe Lomax
  • Greenhorn Gid
  • Gregor Buchanan
  • Gregorio Mondragon
  • Grizzly Dan Hadley
  • Grizzly Gert
  • Grizzly Gid
  • Guadalupe Archuleta
  • Gunnar Haugen
  • Gunnar Mercer
  • Gus Ledford

H: 28 names

  • Halvor Knutson
  • Ham's Fork Zack Pollard
  • Hamish Ogilvie
  • Hank Blackwood
  • Hard Winter Hattie
  • Hardtack Gus Mabry
  • Hardtack Hank
  • Harlan Dockery
  • Hawken Jim Pell
  • Hazel Blackwood
  • Hector MacFarlane
  • Henry's Fork Hank
  • Hermit Hank of Sweetwater
  • Hezekiah Boggs
  • High Lonesome
  • Hilaire Duchesne
  • Hilario Quintana
  • Hippolyte Fournier
  • Hiram "Cache" Trask
  • Hoback Hi
  • Hollis Barlow
  • Honore Langlois
  • Horace Mullins
  • Horse Creek Rafe Ingram
  • Hosea Pritchett
  • Hoss Latham
  • Hugh Corrigal
  • Hyacinthe Morin

I: 9 names

  • Iain MacAulay
  • Ichabod Hollis
  • Ignace Paquette
  • Ignacio Baca
  • Ira Yocum
  • Isaac Ledbetter
  • Isaiah Overton
  • Isidore Dufresne
  • Israel Goforth

J: 29 names

  • Jabez "Marrow-Bone" Banning
  • Jacob Firth
  • Jacob Pickens
  • Jacques Thibault
  • Jakob Reinhardt
  • Jared Shumate
  • Jean-Baptiste Delorme
  • Jean-Marie Lapointe
  • Jedediah Pruitt
  • Jeremiah Tuttle
  • Jerky Dode
  • Jerusha Trask
  • Jesse Pruett
  • Jesse Tipton
  • Jethro Goss
  • Joab Quarles
  • Joachim Sabourin
  • Joel Pennington
  • John Rendall
  • Jonas Rucker
  • Joseph Laliberte
  • Joseph Lavallee
  • Josiah "Hawken" Rudd
  • Jotham Tolliver
  • Juan Trujillo
  • Jubal Deweese
  • Judd Haney
  • Julien Larocque
  • Juniper Jim

K: 6 names

  • Kaintuck Cal
  • Kaintuck Joe Wicks
  • Keelboat Pete Inman
  • Kenneth Rattray
  • Keziah Rowe
  • Konrad Eberhardt

L: 25 names

  • Laban Easley
  • Lachlan Gillespie
  • Laramie Lem
  • Lars Halvorsen
  • Last Cache
  • Laurent Mercier
  • Lazarus Upshaw
  • Le Castor Giroux
  • Leander Sevier
  • Leandre Moreau
  • Leland Crouse
  • Lemuel Ashby
  • Levi "Whiskers" Teague
  • Lodgepole Lon
  • Long Hunter
  • Long Rifle Cal Haskell
  • Long Rifle Lige
  • Long Rory MacGregor
  • Lost Creek Lem
  • Louis Sansregret
  • Lucius Napier
  • Ludwig Vogel
  • Luke Dunaway
  • Luther Vickers
  • Lyle Underhill

M: 31 names

  • Ma Rudd
  • Mack Sutter
  • Mackinaw Jud Deaton
  • Maeve Kincaid
  • Magnus Flett
  • Magnus Isbister
  • Malachi Burr
  • Malachy Finnegan
  • Malcolm MacBain
  • Manuel Romero
  • Marcelino Tafoya
  • Marcellin Roy
  • Marguerite Beauchamp
  • Mariano Valdez
  • Marrow-Bone Mose
  • Matthias Schaefer
  • Matthias Wofford
  • Medard Verreault
  • Mehitable Goss
  • Mercy Whitlock
  • Merle Eubanks
  • Methuselah Marsh
  • Micajah Harlan
  • Michel Tessier
  • Michel Vadeboncoeur
  • Missouri Mose
  • Morag Munro
  • Mordecai Tull
  • Moses Stokes
  • Murdo Nicolson
  • Musselshell Mose

N: 8 names

  • Narcisse Plamondon
  • Nathan Kilgore
  • Nathaniel Whitlock
  • Nehemiah Drummond
  • Nicolas Pacheco
  • Nine-Toes Sam Yoder
  • No-Return Rube
  • Noah Yarbrough

O: 29 names

  • Obadiah Stroud
  • Obed Hollister
  • Off-Grid Earl
  • Olaf Tollefson
  • Old Bitterroot
  • Old Eph Tanner
  • Old Ephraim
  • Old Frosty
  • Old Greybeard
  • Old Hardtack
  • Old Hez
  • Old Hoss
  • Old Jed Holt
  • Old Kaintuck
  • Old Man Ketchum
  • Old Man Pruitt
  • Old Plew
  • Old Rawhide
  • Old Silvertip
  • Old Tobe
  • Old Two-Traps
  • Old Whiskers
  • Old Zeb
  • Olivier Racine
  • One-Eye Zeke Dabney
  • Onesime Levesque
  • Opal Ridgeway
  • Orrin Kimball
  • Otis Wheeler

P: 31 names

  • Pablo Espinosa
  • Packsaddle Newt
  • Padraig Kavanagh
  • Painter Pete
  • Painter Sam Garrity
  • Pappy Boggs
  • Pappy Hobbs
  • Pascal Beaulieu
  • Patch Knife Wash
  • Pawpaw Ledford
  • Pedro Griego
  • Peleg Thrasher
  • Petit Jean Ladouceur
  • Philemon Crabtree
  • Phineas Gantt
  • Pierre Bellefeuille
  • Pierre Jolicoeur
  • Pierre's Hole Ab Wardlow
  • Pieter Vandermeer
  • Pilgrim Joe Jessup
  • Placide Boucher
  • Platte River Pete
  • Plew Dorsey
  • Plew Hunter
  • Pop Tanner
  • Pork-Eater
  • Possibles Durbin
  • Powderhorn Nate Brandt
  • Preacher Hank Eads
  • Prosper Rondeau
  • Prudence Carver

R: 19 names

  • Rafael Archuleta
  • Ramon Sandoval
  • Ranald MacKinnon
  • Ransom Cobb
  • Rawhide Abe Hatch
  • Rawhide Rube
  • Red Fergus MacNab
  • Red Halvorsen
  • Regis St. Pierre
  • Rendezvous Ned
  • Reuben "Float Stick" Tripp
  • Rhett Napier
  • Ridge Puckett
  • Robert Inkster
  • Roderick Innes
  • Ronald MacCallum
  • Roscoe Dunlap
  • Roy McAllister
  • Rufus Easterling

S: 35 names

  • Sagebrush Si Kell
  • Sagebrush Sol
  • Sandy Mackintosh
  • Santiago Montoya
  • Sawmill Sam
  • Sawtooth Sam
  • Sawtooth Zeb Lomax
  • Sawyer Skaggs
  • Seamus Quinlan
  • Seth "Beavertail" Bledsoe
  • Severino Roybal
  • Shadrach Bowman
  • Shane Holbrook
  • Shining Times
  • Short Rations
  • Silas "Plew" Whitlock
  • Silas Blankenship
  • Silas Craddock
  • Silvertip
  • Simeon Gentry
  • Six-Traps
  • Snake River Nate
  • Snowshoe Sadie
  • Snowshoe Si
  • Snowshoe Sol Eaton
  • Soledad Montoya
  • Solomon Kessler
  • Sourdough Nate Neely
  • South Pass Sol
  • Starvin' Times
  • Sven Dahlgren
  • Sweetwater Hez Lusk
  • Sweetwater Sue
  • Sweetwater Zeke
  • Sylvanus Rutledge

T: 39 names

  • Taos Lightning Tom Voss
  • Telesphore Dubois
  • Temperance Tuttle
  • Tennessee Thad
  • Teodoro Madrid
  • Thaddeus Pettigrew
  • Thankful Kimball
  • The Bear Lake Hermit
  • The Booshway
  • The Free Trapper
  • The Ghost of Wind River
  • The Graybeard of the Gallatin
  • The Hermit of Bitterroot Valley
  • The Hermit of Cimarron Canyon
  • The Hermit of Hoback Canyon
  • The Hermit of Lost Creek
  • The Hivernant
  • The Last of the Brigade
  • The Old Man of Cache Valley
  • The Recluse of Sawtooth Ridge
  • The Trapper of Henry's Fork
  • The Wanderer of South Pass
  • The Winterer
  • Theophile Vachon
  • Thomas Drever
  • Three-Finger Pete Ashby
  • Timberline Thad Hume
  • Timberline Tilly
  • Timberline Tobe
  • Titus Hargis
  • Tobias "Snowblind" Beck
  • Tomas Gallegos
  • Torquil MacAskill
  • Torvald Nygaard
  • Toussaint Gagnon
  • Trapline Eph Maddox
  • Trapline Tess
  • Truman Eldridge
  • Tucker Granger

U: 7 names

  • Ulrich Stauffer
  • Uncle Asa
  • Uncle Eph
  • Uncle Lem Ashby
  • Uncle Thad
  • Uncle Zeke
  • Uriah "Packmule" Pogue

V: 5 names

  • Vern Rawlings
  • Vicente Lucero
  • Vieux Antoine Latulippe
  • Vieux Baptiste
  • Virgil Yancey

W: 20 names

  • Wade Stillwell
  • Walt Pickett
  • Waylon Combs
  • Wee Dougal MacPhail
  • Wendell Pritchard
  • Whiskers Tobe
  • Widow Tuttle
  • Wiley Owsley
  • Wilhelm Metzger
  • Willa Granger
  • William Leith
  • William Moar
  • Wind River Zeb Mears
  • Windy Ike
  • Windy Mose Judd
  • Wiping Stick
  • Wood Smoke Wade
  • Woodstove Walt
  • Wren Holloway
  • Wyatt Hargrove

X: 1 name

  • Xavier Lemieux

Y: 1 name

  • Yellowstone Cy Nance

Z: 6 names

  • Zachariah Lyle
  • Zadok Isbell
  • Zebulon Carver
  • Zeke Varney
  • Zephaniah Jarvis
  • Zephirin St. Onge