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 11, 2026
Angelo Mathews — Angelo
Angelo Mathews being a former national team captain in Sri Lankan cricket, on top of being known for his all-round ability, tells me everything I need to know about the kind of competitor he is, even though cricket's…
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July 11, 2026
Angelo Ogbonna — Angelo
Soccer's never been our sport around Piney Grove — football means something with pads and a huddle here — but I understand Angelo Ogbonna built a real reputation for defensive leadership in England's top league,…
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July 10, 2026
Antonio Banderas — Antonio
Antonio Banderas built a career on charisma that translates convincingly across two languages and two very different film industries, which is a more precise achievement than the word "charisma" alone usually credits.…
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July 10, 2026
Antonio Stradivari — Antonio
Antonio Stradivari's violins are still considered the gold standard centuries after he built them, which is the kind of fact that sticks with a guy who spends a lot of time thinking about how few things actually last…
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July 10, 2026
Antonio Vivaldi — Antonio
The Four Seasons is basically four small paintings made out of sound, which is probably why it's stayed so relentlessly popular for centuries — each concerto has such a clear visual mood, storms and birdsong and ice,…
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July 9, 2026
Salvatore Adamo — Salvatore
Salvatore Adamo built decades of popularity across Europe on romantic ballads like "Tombe la neige," which is the kind of sustained, gentle career I find myself drawn to more the older I get and the more I appreciate…
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July 9, 2026
Salvatore Ferragamo — Salvatore
Salvatore Ferragamo's reputation rests on innovative technique as much as on glamour, which is the detail I find most worth dwelling on — his clientele may have been famous, but the underlying work was a set of…
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July 9, 2026
Salvatore Quasimodo — Salvatore
Salvatore Quasimodo winning the Nobel Prize in Literature for poetry that captured both the tragedy and the hope of postwar life reminds me a little of the recipes that get handed down after hard years in a family —…
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July 8, 2026
Dante Alighieri — Dante
I never made it past a few excerpts of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy myself in my community college night classes, but even secondhand you can tell you're dealing with something built to last — one of the greatest…
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July 8, 2026
Dante Basco — Dante
Dante Basco is a name that hits different generations completely differently — either you know him as one of the Lost Boys from Hook, or you know him as the voice of Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and…
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July 8, 2026
Dante Exum — Dante
I'll admit upfront that professional basketball is not usually in my wheelhouse — most nights lately my attention span maxes out around one baby monitor and half an article — but Dante Exum's path still caught my…
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July 7, 2026
Bruno Fernandes — Bruno
I don't follow English soccer closely, but being named captain of a club as big as Manchester United tells you something specific about Bruno Fernandes beyond just his skill on the ball — teammates and coaches trusted…