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 1, 2026
Wilma Mankiller — Wilma
I've spent a career watching what happens to communities when the people running them stop looking out for the workers, so it means something to read about Wilma Mankiller, the first woman voters chose to lead the…
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February 1, 2026
Wilma Rudolph — Wilma
Wilma Rudolph overcame childhood polio and became the first woman from the U.S. to take home three track and field golds from one Olympic Games, and honestly the 'overcame' part deserves way more attention than it…
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February 1, 2026
Wilma Vaught — Wilma
My grandfather came through Ellis Island to work the mills, and I was raised to respect people who serve, whatever the uniform, so reading about Wilma Vaught, a retired Air Force Brigadier General and among the most…
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January 31, 2026
A. C. Gilbert — Gilbert
A pole vaulter who won Olympic gold before then goes and invents the Erector Set is such a wild career pivot that I had to read it twice — like, imagine peaking athletically and then deciding your actual legacy is…
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January 31, 2026
Gilbert Baker — Gilbert
There's something so purely, beautifully designed about the rainbow flag that I think people forget an actual person had to make every choice in it — the number of stripes, the specific colors, the proportions — and…
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January 31, 2026
W. S. Gilbert — Gilbert
Spent a lot of hours on audiobook history about the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership once, somewhere around New Mexico I think, and W.S. Gilbert's half of it, the librettist side, doesn't get near the credit it deserves…
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January 30, 2026
Vernon Davis — Vernon
I don't know much about professional football, having raised my four on a schoolteacher's salary where extra channels on the television weren't in the budget, but I do know something about young people who use whatever…
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January 30, 2026
Vernon Jordan — Vernon
Vernon Jordan spent decades leading the National Urban League and then advising presidents, all in service of expanding real economic opportunity for Black Americans, and I respect that kind of work specifically because…
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January 30, 2026
Vernon Reid — Vernon
As someone who has definitely tried and failed to be interesting on a guitar, I have deep respect for Vernon Reid, who co-founded Living Colour and then just refused to play by anybody's genre rules, which if you know…
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January 29, 2026
Leon Bridges — Leon
Leon Bridges took classic American soul music and made it feel completely alive again for a new generation, which is a specific kind of craft I recognize from running a neighborhood bakery — taking something…
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January 29, 2026
Leon Panetta — Leon
Leon Panetta's long record of public service, including the country's defense secretary, its CIA director, and its White House chief of staff, represents the kind of sustained institutional competence I find myself…
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January 29, 2026
Leon Spinks — Leon
My husband Tom, who was an EMT for years, always said boxing produces some of the most improbable stories in sports, and Leon Spinks is certainly one — an Olympic gold medalist who became world heavyweight champion in…