OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Posh Name Generator
Double-Barrelled Surnames and Old-Money Names with Numerals for Aristocrats
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How the Rich/posh Name Generator works
This posh name generator gives a fresh list with every click. Generate names that sound like they come with a country house or a trust fund: British double-barrelled aristocrats with titles and prep-school nicknames, and American old-money families with surnames as first names, Roman numerals and a summer address. Pick a style, a gender and a form.
Posh name generator: how the names are built
The two great traditions of expensive naming work on different principles, and the generator keeps them separate so each comes out right.
British upper-class naming signals lineage through accumulation. A well-born child gets two or three given names, some honouring godparents or ancestors, and a surname that has often been hyphenated with a second one when an heiress married and her family name was kept. Fortescue, Cholmondeley, Ponsonby and Featherstonehaugh (pronounced Fanshaw) are real names of this kind, and part of their snob value is that outsiders cannot say them. First names in this bank are the ones that have stayed almost exclusive to the class: Rupert, Piers, Tarquin, Peregrine, Ludovic and Torquil for boys; Arabella, Cressida, Ottoline, Araminta and Persephone for girls. The With title option adds a courtesy title (Lord, Lady, The Hon., Sir, Dame) or a peerage with a territorial designation, "Rosalind Vane, Countess of Petworth". The With nickname option inserts the boarding-school nickname that many aristocrats carry for life: Bunny, Bertie, Squiffy, Bunty, Puffin, Tuppence, the kind that P. G. Wodehouse recorded rather than invented.
American old money signals lineage through repetition. The pattern is a family surname used as a first name (Winthrop, Cabot, Prescott, Livingston), a mother's maiden name as a middle name, the father's surname, and then a numeral or Jr. to show that the same name has been used before: Thurston Cabot Lodge III. Surnames in this bank are the founding families of Boston, New York and Philadelphia (Cabot, Lodge, Lowell, Saltonstall, Peabody, Van Rensselaer, Schuyler, Biddle, Drexel), plus the Gilded Age industrial fortunes (Vanderbilt, Astor, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Mellon). Women's names in the American style lean either to the classic (Eleanor, Cornelia, Priscilla, Constance) or to the country-club diminutive (Bitsy, Muffy, Kitty, Blair, Sloane). The With title option adds either an office (Senator, Ambassador, Commodore, Judge) or the "of Greenwich" place tag that society pages use, and the nickname option supplies the prep-school forms: Chip, Trip, Skip, Tad, Biff, Muffy, Buffy, Mimi.
Choosing Any for the style mixes the two traditions from one name to the next but never inside one name, so you will not get a Roman numeral on a hyphenated British surname. Choosing Any for gender likewise keeps each name's title, nickname and first names consistent with each other.
Use the output for characters, party invitations, satire and placeholder personas. The surnames are real family names, so do not attach the results to a real person or present them as a genuine individual.
FAQ
Why are the British surnames hyphenated?
Double-barrelled surnames arose when an heiress married and her family wanted its name preserved alongside the husband's. Over generations they came to signal old land and old money, and the generator hyphenates two family names to reproduce that effect.
What do the Roman numerals mean in the American names?
They count how many times the exact name has been used in a direct line. John Jacob Astor IV was the fourth John Jacob Astor. Old-money American families reuse full names to make the lineage visible, and Jr., II, III and so on record it.
Are the nicknames real?
Yes. Bunny, Bertie, Bunty and Tuppence are recorded nicknames of British aristocrats and boarding-school pupils; Chip, Trip, Muffy and Biff are standard American prep-school forms. Trip, for instance, is short for triple and belongs to a man who is "the third".
Why do the American women's names have no numeral?
Because the convention only applies to sons carrying their father's exact name. Daughters instead carry the mother's maiden name or a grandmother's surname as a middle name, which is what the generator gives them.
Can I use these names for a real person or account?
Use them for characters, games and satire. The surnames belong to real families and some full combinations could match a living person, so do not present the output as a genuine individual.
See also: all People tools, Fantasy & RPG, Sci-fi, Culture & Language, Online & Social, Business & Brand, Places & Things.
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