Rich Name Generator

A rich name works by signalling lineage. Old-money American names lean on long, Latinate first names (Cornelius, Thaddeus, Genevieve, Octavia), Anglo surnames that sound like estates or towns (Ashworth, Pembrooke, Whitcombe, Harrington), and a generational suffix such as III or Jr. that implies the fortune is older than the person carrying it. Surnames used as first names (Carrington, Sterling, Remington, Winslow) are another tell, as are the soft prep-school nicknames the family uses instead: Bunny, Muffy, Tripp, Chip, Bitsy, Kip.

This list mixes those registers. You will find Gilded Age heirs and heiresses, double-barrelled and hyphenated names that announce two fortunes merged by marriage, European aristocrats with von, de and della, Texas oil and Southern plantation money, Hollywood-golden-age glamour, new-money international names that pair a global first name with an Anglo surname, and a short run of joke names like Chauncey Moneyworth and Trust Fund Tripp for comedies and parodies.

For fiction, decide how the money was made before you choose. Inherited wealth suits a formal name with a numeral; a self-made tycoon can carry a plain first name and let the surname do the work; and a spoiled heir in a satire can get away with a name that is openly absurd.