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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June 25, 2026
Neil Gaiman — Neil
Neil Gaiman writes these big, strange books, American Gods and The Sandman among them, that take old myths and weave them into something entirely new and modern, and while that's not exactly my usual reading, one of my…
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June 25, 2026
Neil Young — Neil
Neil Young has had a genuinely long, restless career, moving across rock and folk for decades in a way that has apparently kept him relevant to musicians several generations younger than he is, which is not a thing I…
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June 24, 2026
Derek Hough — Derek
Derek Hough has built an entire respected career, Emmy-winning even, around Dancing with the Stars, teaching people with zero professional dance background how to move well enough to perform in front of a live audience,…
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June 24, 2026
Derek Jeter — Derek
Derek Jeter is remembered as much for being a genuinely respected leader in that Yankees clubhouse as for the five championships and the Hall of Fame numbers, and having spent decades working alongside doctors, aides,…
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June 24, 2026
Derek Walcott — Derek
Derek Walcott won the Nobel Prize for poetry and plays out of Saint Lucia, a little island most folks couldn't find on a map, and I think there's something fitting about that, since so much of the best writing I've ever…
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June 23, 2026
Bradley Cooper — Bradley
Bradley Cooper went from the very broad comedy of the Hangover trilogy to directing and starring in something as emotionally demanding as A Star Is Born, and that kind of range takes real discipline to pull off…
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June 23, 2026
Bradley Walsh — Bradley
Bradley Walsh built a long career as a British television presenter, best known now for hosting The Chase, which from what I understand is a quiz show where regular folks go up against professional quizzers trying to…
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June 23, 2026
Bradley Wiggins — Bradley
Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist ever to win the Tour de France and collected eight Olympic medals along the way, which as somebody who's worked twelve-hour shifts on my feet for decades, I have real…
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June 22, 2026
Wayne Gretzky — Wayne
Wayne Gretzky is called the greatest hockey player of all time by basically everybody who's ever watched the sport seriously, and what gets me about his numbers isn't any single highlight, it's how many NHL scoring…
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June 22, 2026
Wayne Rooney — Wayne
Wayne Rooney is one of the highest goal-scorers in the history of English football, a career built across Manchester United and the England national team that racked up numbers most strikers never get within shouting…
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June 22, 2026
Wayne Thiebaud — Wayne
Wayne Thiebaud painted cakes and pies and diner counters like they deserved the same serious attention as any grand historical subject, thick, buttery brushstrokes that somehow make a slice of pie look almost…
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June 21, 2026
Keith Haring — Keith
Keith Haring made art that was meant to be seen by everybody, not just people who'd normally walk into a gallery — bold, simple lines on subway walls and public spaces, accessible in a way a lot of serious art doesn't…