Pastor Name Generator
Believable pastor and preacher names for any congregation
Tap a name to copy itPress Space for a new batch500 names in this generator
Generate pastor names with the right title and feel: Pastor, Reverend, Rev. Dr., Brother, Bishop, Elder and Apostle, across small-town Baptist churches, Black church traditions, mainline pulpits, Pentecostal and nondenominational congregations, and immigrant churches worldwide. Useful for novels, screenplays, tabletop NPCs and church-setting fiction.
About pastor names
A pastor's name is really a title plus a name, and the title tells you the church before you ever see the building. Pastor followed by a first name only (Pastor Mike, Pastor Jen) is the nondenominational and evangelical default, deliberately casual. Pastor with a full name (Pastor Daniel Hargrove) reads Baptist or Pentecostal; Reverend and Rev. Dr. belong to mainline Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran pulpits and to the Black church, where the Rev. Dr. is a mark of real standing; Brother and Sister are Southern and Holiness traditions; Bishop, Elder, Apostle and Prophetess signal COGIC, Apostolic and African Pentecostal churches. Vicar, Canon and Dean are Anglican, Father is Catholic, Orthodox or Episcopal.
The given names carry the era and the region. Old Testament names (Ezekiel, Josiah, Hezekiah, Obadiah) suit historical preachers and revivalists; doubled Southern names (Jimmy Lee, Bobby Joe, Eula Mae) put you in a clapboard church off a county road; virtue names (Faith, Mercy, Blessing) and Yoruba, Igbo, Akan and Korean names reflect the immigrant congregations that now make up a large share of growing churches. Surnames work best when they sound like they came off a church sign: Whitfield, Holloway, Tolliver, Okonkwo, Castellanos.
Mix titles and traditions, and the right name for your story's pulpit will be in the list.
Tips for choosing a name
- Choose the title first, because it sets the denomination: Pastor for evangelical and Baptist, Reverend or Rev. Dr. for mainline and Black church, Brother for rural Southern, Bishop or Apostle for Pentecostal and Apostolic.
- First-name-only titles (Pastor Dave) make a character approachable and modern; full names with Rev. Dr. make one formal, senior and a little intimidating.
- Match the given name to the decade the character was born: a 70-year-old preacher is Harold or Bernice, a 35-year-old church planter is Josh, Tyler or Kelsey.
- For historical fiction, lean on Old Testament and Puritan-era names (Ezekiel, Jedediah, Thaddeus, Hezekiah) and drop the modern Pastor title in favor of Reverend or Brother.
- Avoid the names of famous living preachers; a fictional pastor sharing a name with a televangelist pulls readers straight out of the story.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Pastor, Reverend and Minister?
Pastor describes the role of leading a congregation and is used as a title mainly in evangelical, Baptist and Pentecostal churches. Reverend is an honorific for ordained clergy in most Protestant denominations and is the formal written form (Rev. Daniel Hargrove). Minister is a generic term and is also a specific title in many Black churches for licensed but not yet ordained clergy.
Can women be pastors, and how are they addressed?
Many denominations ordain women, including Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, Assemblies of God, Foursquare and much of the Black church, so Pastor Rachel Whitaker, Rev. Dr. Renita Gaskins and Bishop Vashti Holloway are all realistic. Southern Baptist and most Reformed churches do not, which matters if you want your setting to be accurate.
What makes a pastor name sound Southern or old-fashioned?
Doubled given names (Billy Ray, Willie Mae), Old Testament names (Ezekiel, Josiah, Amos) and the titles Brother and Sister all read rural and Southern. Names ending in -iah or -ias plus a Rev. (Rev. Hezekiah Stark) read nineteenth-century or Puritan, which is why they suit historical fiction and Westerns.
Are these names suitable for a novel or game?
Yes. Every name is an invented combination written to sound like a real clergy member in a specific tradition, not a real living preacher. Pair the name with a matching church name and a denomination, and a quick search will confirm you have not accidentally duplicated a public figure.
All 500 pastor names
Browse the full list
- Pastor James Whitfield
- Pastor Daniel Hargrove
- Pastor Samuel Okonkwo
- Pastor Caleb Brandt
- Pastor Jeremiah Holloway
- Pastor Micah Sutherland
- Pastor Elijah Boone
- Pastor Nathaniel Greer
- Pastor Isaiah Pruitt
- Pastor Joshua Lindqvist
- Pastor Matthew Calloway
- Pastor Andrew Sorensen
- Pastor Peter Vandermeer
- Pastor Thomas Abernathy
- Pastor Stephen Delacroix
- Pastor Timothy Reddick
- Pastor Philip Oyelaran
- Pastor Silas Mercer
- Pastor Luke Harrington
- Pastor Mark Ellison
- Pastor John Mabry
- Pastor Paul Whitcomb
- Pastor Gideon Ashby
- Pastor Ezra Coleman
- Pastor Levi Thornbury
- Pastor Amos Kirkland
- Pastor Jonah Pettigrew
- Pastor Malachi Dunn
- Pastor Zechariah Flint
- Pastor Benjamin Strand
- Pastor Asher Caldwell
- Pastor Josiah Redmond
- Pastor Eli Brannigan
- Pastor Seth Wakefield
- Pastor Reuben Castellanos
- Pastor Simeon Arrington
- Pastor Tobias Keller
- Pastor Abel Northcott
- Pastor Cornelius Tate
- Pastor Titus Lockhart
- Pastor Jude Farrow
- Pastor Rachel Whitaker
- Pastor Hannah Oduya
- Pastor Abigail Ferris
- Pastor Deborah Langston
- Pastor Miriam Castellano
- Pastor Naomi Brightwater
- Pastor Ruth Hensley
- Pastor Esther Kowalczyk
- Pastor Lydia Marchetti
- Pastor Priscilla Ngata
- Pastor Phoebe Sandoval
- Pastor Tabitha Greenwood
- Pastor Joanna Halvorsen
- Pastor Martha Delgado
- Pastor Elizabeth Carrow
- Pastor Sarah Lindgren
- Pastor Leah Obi
- Pastor Rebekah Thorne
- Pastor Grace Kimathi
- Pastor Faith Alderman
- Pastor Hope Brennan
- Pastor Mercy Adebayo
- Pastor Ana Villanueva
- Pastor Maria Elena Soto
- Pastor Gloria Espinoza
- Pastor Carmen Delgadillo
- Pastor Rosa Quintero
- Pastor Esperanza Ruiz
- Pastor Jin-Ho Park
- Pastor Sung-Min Lee
- Pastor David Kang
- Pastor Daniel Choi
- Pastor Joseph Yoon
- Pastor Esther Hwang
- Pastor Grace Nakamura
- Pastor Jonathan Nguyen
- Pastor Paul Tran
- Pastor Samuel Chen
- Pastor Timothy Wong
- Pastor Emmanuel Adeyemi
- Pastor Chukwuemeka Eze
- Pastor Nnamdi Okafor
- Pastor Kwame Boateng
- Pastor Kofi Mensah
- Pastor Joseph Mwangi
- Pastor Peter Otieno
- Pastor Blessing Ndlovu
- Pastor Thabo Mokoena
- Pastor Sipho Dlamini
- Pastor Solomon Haile
- Pastor Desmond Pembrook
- Pastor Cedric Vaughn
- Pastor Reginald Haywood
- Pastor Leon Bridgewater
- Pastor Clarence Tillman
- Pastor Marcus Boyd
- Pastor Terrence Gaines
- Pastor Darnell Whitlock
- Pastor Lamar Higgins
- Pastor Andre Fontaine
- Pastor Curtis Blackwell
- Pastor Willie Mae Hargrove
- Pastor Bernice Tolliver
- Pastor Geraldine Ashford
- Pastor Shirley Copeland
- Pastor Yolanda Mims
- Pastor Vanessa Stokes
- Pastor Keisha Lambert
- Pastor Denise Whitmore
- Pastor Monica Delaney
- Pastor Mike Donnelly
- Pastor Dave Kessler
- Pastor Chris Holden
- Pastor Matt Granger
- Pastor Josh Pruett
- Pastor Jake Ferrell
- Pastor Ben Carver
- Pastor Nate Ridley
- Pastor Todd Brinkley
- Pastor Greg Lassiter
- Pastor Jeff Marlow
- Pastor Steve Pulaski
- Pastor Rob Tanaka
- Pastor Kyle Brannon
- Pastor Brad Whitley
- Pastor Brent Alcott
- Pastor Tyler Dunaway
- Pastor Zach Bellamy
- Pastor Kevin Mortenson
- Pastor Scott Ainsley
- Pastor Brian Kettering
- Pastor Jim Ballard
- Pastor Bob Hutchins
- Pastor Ron Weatherby
- Pastor Larry Oakes
- Pastor Earl Tremont
- Pastor Dale Rumsey
- Pastor Wendell Crump
- Pastor Jimmy Lee Carden
- Pastor Billy Ray Tolbert
- Pastor Bobby Joe Sikes
- Pastor Johnny Mack Purvis
- Pastor Ray Dean Lowery
- Pastor Dwight Mabry
- Pastor Homer Strickland
- Pastor Virgil Cobb
- Pastor Ansel Pruitt
- Pastor Alvin Teague
- Pastor Kim Ferrante
- Pastor Amy Westergaard
- Pastor Jen Halsey
- Pastor Beth Runyon
- Pastor Sue Ellen Tidwell
- Pastor Laura Pennington
- Pastor Karen Oberlin
- Pastor Lisa Fairbanks
- Pastor Nicole Arceneaux
- Pastor Brooke Sandlin
- Pastor Kelsey Moreau
- Pastor Taylor Brockman
- Pastor Jordan Ashcroft
- Reverend Harold Beaumont
- Reverend Walter Pennypacker
- Reverend Arthur Blakely
- Reverend Edmund Carrington
- Reverend Howard Finch
- Reverend Leonard Ashworth
- Reverend Franklin Dorsey
- Reverend Clayton Marsh
- Reverend Ambrose Tisdale
- Reverend Conrad Mueller
- Reverend Heinrich Baumgartner
- Reverend Lars Gustafson
- Reverend Anders Lindholm
- Reverend Erik Haugen
- Reverend Pieter de Vries
- Reverend Hendrik Van Dyk
- Reverend Angus McPherson
- Reverend Duncan Craig
- Reverend Hamish Sinclair
- Reverend Ian Drummond
- Reverend Malcolm Kerr
- Reverend Alistair Buchanan
- Reverend Gwilym Pryce
- Reverend Rhys Tudor
- Reverend Owen Llewellyn
- Reverend Margaret Holcombe
- Reverend Eleanor Whitcombe
- Reverend Catherine Stroud
- Reverend Susan Blakemore
- Reverend Patricia Lindell
- Reverend Barbara Nethercott
- Reverend Nancy Halloran
- Reverend Carol Ashbury
- Reverend Janet Pemberton
- Reverend Helen Marsden
- Reverend Claire Whitlow
- Reverend Emily Grantham
- Reverend Julia Fenwick
- Reverend Alice Wetherell
- Reverend Dr. Nathaniel Crowe
- Reverend Dr. Bartholomew Sills
- Reverend Dr. Theodore Lancaster
- Reverend Dr. Augustine Pryor
- Reverend Dr. Cornelius Whitfield
- Reverend Dr. Ignatius Bell
- Reverend Dr. Ezekiel Bramble
- Reverend Dr. Solomon Ashby
- Reverend Dr. Marcus Thorne
- Reverend Dr. Martin Okolie
- Reverend Dr. Vernon Haskins
- Reverend Dr. Calvin Presley
- Reverend Dr. Wesley Draper
- Reverend Dr. Luther Grange
- Reverend Dr. Augusta Pennell
- Reverend Dr. Beatrice Marlow
- Reverend Dr. Evelyn Stanbridge
- Reverend Dr. Harriet Cole
- Reverend Dr. Dorothy Bell-Hastings
- Reverend Dr. Renita Gaskins
- Reverend Dr. Cynthia Whitehurst
- Reverend Dr. Angela Fordham
- Reverend Dr. Gloria Tennant
- Rev. Cyrus Blankenship
- Rev. Ezekiel Mott
- Rev. Josiah Ledbetter
- Rev. Ephraim Goodale
- Rev. Hezekiah Stark
- Rev. Jedediah Crowell
- Rev. Nehemiah Rutledge
- Rev. Elias Crabtree
- Rev. Asa Hollingsworth
- Rev. Thaddeus Burwell
- Rev. Horace Pettigrew
- Rev. Cornelius Dabney
- Rev. Isaac Greenleaf
- Rev. Jacob Overholt
- Rev. Aaron Blessing
- Rev. Moses Cartwright
- Rev. Jesse Landrum
- Rev. Rufus Pickering
- Rev. Emmett Stroud
- Rev. Warren Loomis
- Rev. Lowell Hatcher
- Rev. Milton Farrow
- Rev. Alma Hargett
- Rev. Ida Bellamy
- Rev. Opal Strickland
- Rev. Viola Redding
- Rev. Hattie Coleman
- Rev. Eula Mae Thigpen
- Rev. Ruby Jean Hasty
- Rev. Pearl Covington
- Brother Jesse Holcomb
- Brother Wendell Pratt
- Brother Clyde Harmon
- Brother Travis Dupree
- Brother Ray Bledsoe
- Brother Marvin Oakes
- Brother Vernon Ellard
- Brother Cecil Gentry
- Brother Luther Pate
- Brother Amos Treadwell
- Brother Coy Beasley
- Brother Tommy Newsome
- Brother Danny Spivey
- Brother Ricky Bowden
- Brother Wayne Tucker
- Brother Randy Poole
- Brother Paul Alvarado
- Brother Andrew Macias
- Sister Bertha Mae Rollins
- Sister Clara Pendergrass
- Sister Ethel Strong
- Sister Odessa Wiggins
- Sister Lula Bell Freeman
- Sister Josephine Hardy
- Sister Loretta Banks
- Sister Rosetta Pinkney
- Bishop Ezekiel Thornton
- Bishop Cornelius Blakemore
- Bishop Isaiah Rutherford
- Bishop Jeremiah Staples
- Bishop Ezra Pemberton
- Bishop Nathaniel Strong
- Bishop Alphonso Gaines
- Bishop Leroy Blackshear
- Bishop Harold Tunstall
- Bishop Elijah Copeland
- Bishop Emmanuel Achebe
- Bishop Samuel Oyelowo
- Bishop Josephine Crawley
- Bishop Vashti Holloway
- Bishop Eunice Sharpe
- Bishop Marlene Ferguson
- Elder Thomas Pritchard
- Elder Joseph Ainsley
- Elder Samuel Redfern
- Elder James Whitlock
- Elder David Strong
- Elder Malachi Tisdale
- Elder Lucius Haywood
- Elder Darius Mobley
- Elder Octavia Pinkney
- Elder Ruthie Mae Gaines
- Elder Patricia Longmire
- Elder Gwendolyn Tatum
- Apostle Ezekiel Boateng
- Apostle Jonathan Ferrell
- Apostle Samuel Adekunle
- Apostle Delores Whitfield
- Apostle Bernadette Okoro
- Apostle Cynthia Blackwell
- Prophet Isaiah Emmanuel
- Prophet Elijah Odunayo
- Prophetess Deborah Ihejirika
- Minister Calvin Roberts
- Minister Dwayne Stokes
- Minister Jerome Pickens
- Minister Aaron Pryce
- Minister Andre Thibodeaux
- Minister Felicia Bowers
- Minister Tameka Ross
- Minister Sandra Thornhill
- Dr. Malcolm Strickland
- Dr. Winston Cartwright
- Dr. Harlan Rusk
- Dr. Gilbert Ashmore
- Dr. Frederick Osterhout
- Dr. Tobias Whitcroft
- Dr. Ellis Harcourt
- Father Aidan Flannery
- Father Declan Rourke
- Father Anselm Greer
- Father Gregory Marchand
- Father Ambrose Penhaligon
- Father Nicholas Stavros
- Father Augustine Ferreira
- Father Benedict Oyelaran
- Vicar Humphrey Ashdown
- Vicar Giles Pennington
- Vicar Crispin Wadsworth
- Vicar Rupert Fallowfield
- Vicar Eleanor Chatterley
- Vicar Harriet Goodenough
- Canon Josiah Whitmarsh
- Canon Beatrice Langley
- Dean Edmund Woodbury
- Chaplain Marcus Delgado
- Chaplain Samuel Greer
- Chaplain Ruth Ann Bledsoe
- Chaplain Naomi Whitcomb
- Chaplain Joseph Nakagawa
- Pastor Antonio Reyes
- Pastor Ricardo Montes
- Pastor Javier Olivares
- Pastor Roberto Salinas
- Pastor Manuel Zavala
- Pastor Juan Carlos Medrano
- Pastor Luis Alberto Rentería
- Pastor Miguel Ángel Carranza
- Pastor Francisco Aguirre
- Pastor Ramón Estrada
- Pastor Ezequiel Navarro
- Pastor Samuel Lozano
- Pastor Moisés Arellano
- Pastor Joel Benítez
- Pastor Abraham Calderón
- Pastor Elías Fuentes
- Pastor Daniel Mejía
- Pastor Noé Sandoval
- Pastor Mateo Serrano
- Pastor Andrés Palacios
- Pastor Santiago Alcántara
- Pastor Rafaela Montalvo
- Pastor Marisol Treviño
- Pastor Beatriz Galindo
- Pastor Noemí Escobedo
- Pastor Débora Solís
- Pastor Sara Betancourt
- Pastor João Batista Ferreira
- Pastor Paulo Henrique Duarte
- Pastor Anderson Carvalho
- Pastor Wesley Tavares
- Pastor Ana Paula Camargo
- Pastor Priscila Monteiro
- Pastor Wilfred Okumu
- Pastor Josiah Ochieng
- Pastor Peter Kariuki
- Pastor Ezekiel Chirwa
- Pastor Lazarus Phiri
- Pastor Precious Nyoni
- Pastor Wisdom Ogbonna
- Pastor Sunday Olaleye
- Pastor Ifeanyi Obiora
- Pastor Folasade Ogundipe
- Pastor Ngozi Ezenwa
- Pastor Nana Yaw Owusu
- Pastor Akosua Frimpong
- Pastor Jean-Baptiste Koffi
- Pastor Joseph Kabongo
- Pastor Emmanuel Ilunga
- Pastor Clément Rukundo
- Pastor Boaz Ssemakula
- Pastor Moses Kigozi
- Pastor Elias Woldemariam
- Pastor Dawit Girma
- Pastor Hanna Tesfaye
- Pastor Ravi Prakash
- Pastor Sunil Varghese
- Pastor Thomas Kurian
- Pastor Benny Philip
- Pastor Vinod Kumar Sahu
- Pastor Mercy Varghese
- Pastor Reuben Tan
- Pastor Jonathan Goh
- Pastor Joshua Lau
- Pastor Ivan Mendoza Cruz
- Pastor Eduardo Villanueva
- Pastor Reynaldo Santos
- Pastor Arnel Magbanua
- Pastor Marites Bonifacio
- Pastor Makoto Hayashi
- Pastor Hiroshi Nakayama
- Pastor Hyun-Woo Kim
- Pastor Min-Jun Jang
- Pastor Young-Soo Han
- Pastor Eun-Ji Moon
- Pastor Hye-Jin Seo
- Pastor Wei Zhang
- Pastor Ming Liu
- Pastor Li Ying
- Pastor Mei Lin
- Pastor Ivan Petrov
- Pastor Mikhail Sokolov
- Pastor Andrei Kuznetsov
- Pastor Oleksandr Bondarenko
- Pastor Taras Shevchuk
- Pastor Pavlo Melnyk
- Pastor Jaroslav Novák
- Pastor Tomáš Dvořák
- Pastor Marek Kowalski
- Pastor Piotr Zieliński
- Pastor Gábor Szabó
- Pastor Andrei Popescu
- Pastor Mihai Ionescu
- Pastor Florin Rădulescu
- Pastor Daniela Petrescu
- Pastor Lars Eriksson
- Pastor Mats Lindberg
- Pastor Henrik Johansson
- Pastor Ole Kristian Hansen
- Pastor Bjørn Andersen
- Pastor Mikkel Christensen
- Pastor Jukka Virtanen
- Pastor Matti Korhonen
- Pastor Klaus Richter
- Pastor Jürgen Hoffmann
- Pastor Wolfgang Schäfer
- Pastor Matthias Wagner
- Pastor Stefan Zimmermann
- Pastor Tobias Hartmann
- Pastor Hanna Schneider
- Pastor Ursula Weber
- Pastor Ruud van der Berg
- Pastor Joost Bakker
- Pastor Willem de Jong
- Pastor Bram Mulder
- Pastor Arjan Dekker
- Pastor Jean-Luc Moreau
- Pastor Olivier Dubois
- Pastor Étienne Lefebvre
- Pastor Matthieu Girard
- Pastor Samuel Perrin
- Pastor Élie Fontaine
- Pastor Marco Rossi
- Pastor Luca Bianchi
- Pastor Giovanni Ferrari
- Pastor Matteo Greco
- Pastor Elia Marino
- Pastor Dusty Greer
- Pastor Boone Hatfield
- Pastor Colt Rainwater
- Pastor Wyatt Strickland
- Pastor Travis Redding
- Pastor Shane Hollister
- Pastor Rusty Culpepper
- Pastor Hank Ledford
- Pastor Skip Fairchild
- Pastor Chuck Sweeney
- Pastor Dan Brumfield
- Pastor Tom Rutledge
- Pastor Bill Haskell
- Pastor Phil Gentry
- Pastor Ted Nichols
- Pastor Jack Merriman
- Pastor Ken Bright
- Pastor Gary Pittman
- Elder Isaac Brantley
Related generators
Priest Name Generator
Fathers, vicars, bishops, monks and cathedral clergy
Church Name Generator
Names for Congregations, Chapels, and Church Plants
Bible Name Generator
Names from Genesis to Revelation
Nun Name Generator
Religious names for sisters, abbesses, and novices
Cleric Name Generator
Names for D&D clerics, priests, and war-chaplains
Puritan Name Generator
Virtue Names and Colonial New England Surnames
More in Professions & Roles
Pirate Captain Name Generator
Fearsome Names for the Captain of Your Crew
Reporter Name Generator
Bylines and Anchor Names That Sound Like the News
Random Hospital Name Generator
Realistic hospital and medical center names
Job Name Generator
Random job titles from everyday to extraordinary
Inventor Name Generator
Believable names for fictional inventors and tinkerers
Duchess Name Generator
Elegant names and titles for duchesses of every era