Thief Name Generator

Thief names come in three main flavours, and the best fictional thieves usually have more than one. First is the working nickname handed out by other criminals: Fingers Malone, Mickey Two-Keys, Louie Locks. These describe a skill (locks, windows, safes), a physical tell (Twitch, Nine-Fingers) or a signature (Sixpence, Diamonds). Second is the press-invented moniker for an uncaught burglar, almost always an animal or a shadow: The Magpie, The Grey Fox, The Nightingale, The Cat. Third is the character's actual name, which for a good thief tends to be quiet and forgettable, or aristocratically smooth for the gentleman-thief tradition of Arsène Lupin and Raffles.

History supplies plenty of models. Moll Cutpurse ran a fencing operation in Jacobean London, Jonathan Wild styled himself "Thief-Taker General" while running the gangs he pretended to catch, Adam Worth was the real "Napoleon of Crime" behind Moriarty, and Doris Payne stole jewels across six decades. Fantasy fiction added its own conventions with Locke Lamora and Garrett of the City: an ordinary first name and a surname with a slight edge to it.

The list below mixes all of these so you can give a single character a birth name, a street name and a headline name, which is exactly how a memorable thief accumulates a reputation.