Treasure Hunter Name Generator

Treasure hunter names have a recognisable shape, set by a century of pulp fiction and film: a short, punchy given name and a surname that sounds like it belongs on a brass plaque or a weathered passport. Jack, Kit, Rafe, Tess and Nell pair with Calloway, Marlow, Ashcombe, Brannigan or Delacroix, and a middle nickname in quotes, such as "Sixpence" or "Fathoms", tells you the character has a past. Academic hunters carry titles (Dr. Lena Radek, Professor Ignatius Bell); salvage captains are known by rank and surname; old prospectors answer to Dusty, Buck or Lucky Lou.

The real trade has its own vocabulary worth borrowing. Wreck divers talk about fathoms, reefs, ballast and flotsam; archaeologists about scarabs, codices and glyphs; gold-rush miners about paydirt, nuggets and the motherlode. Turning one of those words into a nickname (Doubloon Danny, Salvage Sally, Barnacle Bea) is how crews have always christened each other.

Because treasure hunting is global, the list deliberately ranges beyond the English-speaking pulp tradition: Portuguese and Spanish names for Caribbean and Pacific wreck hunters, Greek and Turkish names for Aegean divers, Egyptian, Indian and Japanese names for tomb and temple explorers, and Polynesian, West African and Scandinavian names for crews drawn from every coast.