Good Names, Good People
A running, dated feed of short, positive profiles of real people — historic and present-day — who share popular names. New posts appear here on a regular schedule; every name's own detail page always shows the full set of profiles researched for it.
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July 19, 2026
Noah Webster — Noah
Noah Webster's 1828 "An American Dictionary of the English Language" helped standardize American English and remains, to this day, the direct basis for the Merriam-Webster dictionaries still sitting on desks everywhere.…
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July 19, 2026
Noah Wyle — Noah
Noah Wyle played Dr. John Carter on "ER" for years and more recently took on a similar kind of role in "The Pitt," and both times critics and audiences have praised him specifically for how convincingly he portrays…
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July 18, 2026
Ethan Allen — Ethan
Ethan Allen led the Green Mountain Boys and helped capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British in 1775, and he went on to play a real role in Vermont's early history afterward. I don't know a lot of Revolutionary War…
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July 18, 2026
Ethan Coen — Ethan
Ethan Coen, working with his brother Joel, has written and directed acclaimed films including "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men," picking up multiple Academy Awards along the way for a body of work that a lot of…
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July 18, 2026
Ethan Hawke — Ethan
Ethan Hawke has built an acclaimed, genuinely varied career — "Dead Poets Society," the "Before" trilogy, multiple Oscar nominations — while also writing novels and directing documentaries on the side, which is the…
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July 17, 2026
Mark Hamill — Mark
Mark Hamill will forever be Luke Skywalker to generations of "Star Wars" fans, and he's also quietly built a hugely respected career as a voice actor, most notably as the Joker in countless animated productions over the…
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July 17, 2026
Mark Spitz — Mark
Mark Spitz won a record-setting seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, a feat that stood unmatched for thirty-six years, which tells you something about just how far ahead of his era he actually was — most…
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July 17, 2026
Mark Twain — Mark
Mark Twain wrote "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and is basically the founding father of a very specific, very American brand of sharp, self-deprecating wit that, over a century…
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July 16, 2026
Steven Pinker — Steven
Steven Pinker is a cognitive psychologist and Harvard professor whose books, "The Better Angels of Our Nature" especially, make the case that violence has actually declined across human history, and he's become a widely…
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July 16, 2026
Steven Spielberg — Steven
Steven Spielberg directed "Jaws," "E.T.," and "Schindler's List," among a dozen other films most people can quote from memory, and on top of an insane filmmaking career he also founded the USC Shoah Foundation…
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July 16, 2026
Steven Tyler — Steven
Steven Tyler has fronted Aerosmith for decades, one of rock's most enduring frontmen, known for hits like "Dream On" that are still on classic rock radio every single day, and he's also put real weight behind addiction…
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July 15, 2026
Peter Dinklage — Peter
Peter Dinklage won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing Tyrion Lannister on "Game of Thrones," and has since used that platform to advocate consistently for actors with dwarfism and for greater diversity in casting…