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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March 25, 2026
Gloria Steinem — Gloria
Gloria Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine and became one of the most recognizable leaders of the American feminist movement, and here's what gets me about her story: journalists and activists don't get highlight reels the…
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March 25, 2026
Gloria Swanson — Gloria
Gloria Swanson was one of the biggest, most glamorous stars of the silent era, and then decades later she came back and became iconic all over again in Sunset Boulevard, playing a version of a faded star that some folks…
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March 24, 2026
Glenn Close — Glenn
Glenn Close has been nominated for the Academy Award eight times now, which is a number that ought to embarrass whoever keeps the trophy away from her, though I imagine she's made her peace with it better than I…
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March 24, 2026
Glenn Frey — Glenn
Glenn Frey co-founded the Eagles and co-wrote 'Hotel California,' and I'll be straight with you, that band got so much radio play in the mill breakroom back in the seventies that I probably know every word of half their…
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March 24, 2026
Glenn Miller — Glenn
Glenn Miller's swing recordings, 'In the Mood' especially, are the kind of music that still comes on the truck-stop jukebox some nights out on the road, decades after he made it, which tells you something about a song's…
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March 23, 2026
Emilio Aguinaldo — Emilio
Emilio Aguinaldo led the fight for Philippine independence and became the country's first president, which, when you actually sit with it, is the founder-of-a-nation version of quitting your job to start a company,…
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March 23, 2026
Emilio Estevez — Emilio
Emilio Estevez became known through The Breakfast Club and The Mighty Ducks, part of that whole 1980s group they called the Brat Pack, and what I notice, maybe because I'm a nurse and I notice families out of habit, is…
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March 23, 2026
Emilio Pucci — Emilio
Look, fashion isn't my usual playbook, but stay with me on Emilio Pucci, because there's a lesson in here for anybody watching. This is a guy whose whole game was color — vivid, bold, patterned prints that basically…
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March 22, 2026
Alfonso Cuaron — Alfonso
Alfonso Cuaron makes films that feel like compositions before they feel like stories — Gravity is basically one long held breath in negative space, and Roma is composed in these quiet, deep-focus frames that look like…
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March 22, 2026
Alfonso Ribeiro — Alfonso
Alfonso Ribeiro got famous on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and then had the kind of career a lot of former child stars don't manage — he actually kept working, eventually landing a long, steady gig hosting America's…
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March 22, 2026
Alfonso X of Castile — Alfonso
Alfonso X of Castile ruled Spain in the 1200s and got the nickname 'the Wise,' which, if we're being honest, is a nickname that would not survive contact with a modern comments section — somebody would immediately…
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March 21, 2026
Bernard Cornwell — Bernard
Bernard Cornwell writes those Sharpe books, the historical fiction ones, and I'll tell you, I had a student back in my third-grade days — no, not reading Sharpe at eight years old, don't be silly, but a boy named…