Texas Name Generator

Texas names are a blend you will not find anywhere else, because the state was settled by several groups at once and they all left their mark on the phone book. Anglo-Southern families from Tennessee and Alabama brought Old Testament first names and a fondness for double names: Billy Ray, Bobbie Jo, Jimmie Lee, Sue Ellen, Norma Jean. Tejano families who were here before the Republic gave South Texas its Garzas, Treviños, Cantus, Villarreals and Hinojosas. German settlers filled the Hill Country with Schreiners, Kuhlmanns and Engelkes, and Czech farmers left Janak, Hruska, Kocurek and Pustejovsky across the Blackland Prairie. Black Texan families added Broussard, Thibodeaux and Hightower to East Texas.

On top of the legal name comes the nickname, which in Texas often replaces it entirely. A man can be Bubba, Dub, Hoss, Sonny, Cotton or Junior from grade school to the obituary, and a surname like Tatum, Crockett or Lamar doubles as a first name for boys. Women's names lean toward the soft double barrel (Ida Mae, Ruth Ann, Glenda Pearl) in older generations and toward Kaylee, Brooke and Shelby in younger ones.

To make a name read as Texan, pick the region first. A Valley name, a Panhandle name and a Houston name are not the same, and the surname usually tells you which one you are holding.