Pirate Name Generator

How pirate names are usually built

Pirates go by what their shipmates call them. The most common pattern is a plain given name with a nickname that records a fact or a joke: Peg-Leg Tilda, Mercy the Quiet. Captains add a surname that sounds either respectable or grim, such as Captain Jack Hartigan, and often a title that crew use in public.

A good pirate nickname is physical, silly or cruel. It points at a scar, a habit, a debt or a story everyone on the ship has heard, and it always has more to say than the name itself.

Keeping a crew consistent

A crew should sound like a crew. Give a ship a shared habit, such as nicknames from the body, from the sea or from the last port, and let new members earn theirs after an incident. The captain can break the pattern, because a captain is allowed to be strange. Decide what the crew calls each person to their face, behind their back and in the ship's log. Keep a roster with real names, nicknames and when each was earned, and use a cruel or funny nickname as a character beat: someone who hates theirs will have a story about it.

Twenty example pirate names

• Captain Jack Hartigan a charming rogue with a ship he borrowed.
• Peg-Leg Tilda a ship's cook who is also the best shot aboard.
• Captain Black Teague a fearsome name for a very careful commander.
• Mercy the Quiet a gunner who never raises her voice.
• One-Eyed Ned a lookout with an excuse for missing things.
• Captain Odette Fenwick a former navy officer who changed sides.
• Hob the Barnacle a deckhand who never leaves his post.
• Salt Marlowe a sailor who was born at sea.
• Captain Iron-Tooth Ketch collects debts with a smile.
• Dorcas the Fiddler plays for the crew and spies for the captain.
• Crooked Barnaby a navigator who draws the map his own way.
• Captain Silver Drummond a gentleman pirate with fine manners.
• Ezekiel the Mender a sail-maker who is also the ship's surgeon.
• Red Sal a boarding party leader with a loud laugh.
• Captain Mad Brine is not mad, only very good at seeming so.
• Rafferty the Lame holds the ship's ledger and a grudge.
• Lucky Odette has survived three shipwrecks and counting.
• Captain Tilda Greaves runs a tight ship and an honest ledger.
• Cutlass Jack a duellist with a reputation to protect.
• Marlowe Tallow a bosun who knows every rope on the ship.