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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May 16, 2026
Chiara Mastroianni — Chiara
Chiara Mastroianni has built her own respected career in French cinema, which matters more than it might initially seem given she's the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni — two towering names any…
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May 16, 2026
Saint Clare of Assisi — Chiara
Saint Clare of Assisi founded the Order of Poor Clares back in the thirteenth century and gave up a life of comfort to do it, choosing poverty and devotion on purpose, which is a kind of faith I find easy to admire even…
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May 15, 2026
Isabel Allende — Isabel
Isabel Allende is one of the best-selling novelists writing in Spanish, period, with "The House of the Spirits" as the book that put her on the map worldwide, and she wrote it, famously, starting as a letter to her…
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May 15, 2026
Isabel Marant — Isabel
Isabel Marant built an influential ready-to-wear label defined by a relaxed, effortlessly chic aesthetic, which as a designer myself is basically my dream sentence to have written about my own work someday —…
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May 15, 2026
Isabel Wilkerson — Isabel
Isabel Wilkerson won a Pulitzer Prize and then wrote "The Warmth of Other Suns," a history of the Great Migration that I understand is considered one of the landmark books on the subject. I've taught history to third…
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May 14, 2026
Renée Elise Goldsberry — Renee
Renée Elise Goldsberry won a Tony Award originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in "Hamilton," and I always think about how much unglamorous work usually sits underneath a role people remember as effortless and…
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May 14, 2026
Renée Fleming — Renee
Renée Fleming is one of the most celebrated opera sopranos of her generation, with multiple Grammy Awards and the National Medal of Arts to show for a genuinely towering career. My dad raised me on opera, actually, so…
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May 14, 2026
Renée Zellweger — Renee
Renée Zellweger won an Academy Award for playing Judy Garland in "Judy" and also built a whole other, very different, very beloved career through the Bridget Jones films, which is a wider range than people probably…
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May 13, 2026
Simone Biles — Simone
Simone Biles is, statistically, just the most decorated gymnast in world championship history, full stop, and she did it by inventing skills so difficult other gymnasts weren't even allowed to attempt them at full value…
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May 13, 2026
Simone de Beauvoir — Simone
Simone de Beauvoir wrote "The Second Sex," which is basically foundational for modern feminist thought — like, an actual root text a huge amount of later thinking grows directly out of, the kind of book you cite even…
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May 13, 2026
Simone Signoret — Simone
Simone Signoret became the first French performer to win an Academy Award, taking the honor for "Room at the Top," which represented a genuine breakthrough for French cinema on the international stage at the time. I…
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May 12, 2026
Serena Altschul — Serena
Serena Altschul has spent her career as a journalist and correspondent covering arts and culture, which I will admit is precisely the sort of beat that appeals to me most — the quieter corner of the news that isn't…