Western Name Generator

Western names cover everyone who lived on the American frontier between roughly 1850 and 1900: cowboys, cattle barons, marshals, homesteaders, saloon keepers, miners and the outlaws they chased. Real given names of the period were overwhelmingly biblical and Victorian. Census rolls from Kansas and Texas are full of men called Jedediah, Ezra, Silas, Amos, Josiah and Cyrus, and women called Adelaide, Clementine, Hattie, Lottie and Beulah. Surnames were English, Scots-Irish and German for the most part (Whitlock, Colter, Rourke, Baumgartner), with Spanish names (Ochoa, Delgado, Vásquez) dominant across Texas, New Mexico and California and Black cowboys like Nat Love, Bose Ikard and Bass Reeves an under-told part of the story.

The nicknames are what make Western names feel Western. Frontier society renamed people by place of origin (Texas Jack, Arkansas Tom, Cimarron Slim), by appearance (Big Nose Kate, Curly Bill, Three-Fingered Jack), by trade (Doc, Preacher, Judge) or by a memorable habit (Poker Alice, Squirrel Tooth Alice). Almost every legend combined a plain birth name with one of these tags: Martha Jane Cannary became Calamity Jane and Henry McCarty became Billy the Kid.

For a convincing character, choose a plain period name for the birth certificate and let the town give them the nickname.