The Outsiders Name Generator

Names in The Outsiders do a lot of quiet work. Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry Curtis sound nothing like Bob Sheldon or Randy Adderson, and that gap is the whole point of the book. Greaser names are nicknames first: Two-Bit got his for always putting in his two bits, Dallas is 'Dally', Johnny is 'Johnnycake', and Ponyboy and Sodapop are the names on their birth certificates because their father liked them. Underneath the nicknames sit plain working-class surnames from 1960s Oklahoma: Curtis, Cade, Winston, Mathews, Randle, Shepard.

Socs, by contrast, carry tidy, respectable names that would look fine on a country-club roster or a Soc's madras shirt: Bob, Randy, Cherry (really Sherri) Valance, Marcia, Paul Holden. The greaser girls get short, friendly names like Sandy, Evie and Sylvia. If you are writing an original character, decide which side of town they come from first and let the name follow.

The list mixes canon characters with original names built the same way: one-word greaser handles (Tex, Skeeter, Hotrod, Cornbread), nickname-plus-surname combos, double first names like Bobby Ray and Peggy Ann that were common in the region, clean-cut Soc names, and a handful of gang names in the style of the Brumly Boys and the Tiber Street Tigers.