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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February 13, 2026
Roy Lichtenstein — Roy
Roy Lichtenstein took comic strips, the kind of thing most people considered disposable entertainment, and turned them into some of the most recognized paintings of the whole twentieth century, dots and all. I've…
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February 13, 2026
Roy Orbison — Roy
Roy Orbison had that soaring voice and wrote 'Oh, Pretty Woman,' one of those songs that's basically outlived every trend that came after it, which got him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame eventually, deservedly. I…
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February 13, 2026
Roy Rogers — Roy
Roy Rogers was known as the King of the Cowboys, a singing cowboy and film star who charmed generations of families with wholesome Western films and music, and I'll tell you, my own kids grew up on his kind of picture…
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February 12, 2026
Russell Crowe — Russell
Russell Crowe won an Oscar and built a career on commanding, physical performances in movies like Gladiator, and honestly, watching an actor carry a historical epic on his own shoulders reminds me a little of watching…
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February 12, 2026
Russell Westbrook — Russell
Russell Westbrook is a former NBA MVP known for a level of relentless on-court energy that produced a record-setting number of career triple-doubles, a statistic that, I confess, required some explanation from my…
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February 12, 2026
Russell Wilson — Russell
Russell Wilson has been a Super Bowl-winning NFL quarterback and is known just as much for his leadership on the field as for his charitable work with children's hospitals, and I have to say the second part is the one…
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February 11, 2026
Norman Borlaug — Norman
Norman Borlaug developed wheat varieties that are credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize for it, and I have to say, out of everyone I've written about, this is the one that…
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February 11, 2026
Norman Foster — Norman
Norman Foster designs landmark buildings all over the world that somehow manage to be both structurally innovative and genuinely beautiful, which is the architecture version of writing a joke that's technically clever…
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February 11, 2026
Norman Rockwell — Norman
Norman Rockwell painted covers for The Saturday Evening Post for decades, all these warm, detailed pictures of everyday American life — the kind of stuff that used to hang in break rooms and barbershops all over this…
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February 10, 2026
Loretta Lynn — Loretta
Country music's been a constant on these long hauls for twenty-two years, and Loretta Lynn's candid, groundbreaking songwriting is the real deal — she sang about things a lot of performers of her era wouldn't touch,…
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February 10, 2026
Loretta Swit — Loretta
Loretta Swit is best known for M*A*S*H, but the part of her story I actually want my players to hear about is the decades she's spent as a dedicated animal welfare advocate after the show made her famous — using the…
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February 10, 2026
Loretta Young — Loretta
Four decades carrying a career across film and television, with the graceful screen presence to make it look effortless the whole way — that's the kind of longevity I respect as a coach more than any single flashy…