Pirate Name Generator & Best Naming Guide

We find the idea of pirates truly remarkable. That is why game developers consider the pirate era as a nice base concept or universe in producing their games. If you find it hard to conceptualize your pirate’s name, you can try our Pirate Name Generator. This smart generator suggests hundreds of names that players can use for any of their pirate characters—whether in-game or in books. Try it now! It’s free.

Who are the Pirates?

The concept of piracy is not new in the history of mankind. Many bandits consider sea raiding as a profitable and easier way to collect goods or treasures. It is unknown how piracy started and who were the first pirates, but the first-ever documented pirates are the Sea Peoples, who were known for attacking Egyptian seafarers and other neighboring regions trader boats in the eastern Mediterranean Sea before the Late Bronze Age.

Pirates do not only take piracy as a livelihood; they were also hired by countries as mercenaries and are used in doing pillages and damage against enemy states. Pirates are sometimes commissioned to specifically target vessels of an opposing country or tasked to destroy royal vessels. Some pirates are tasked to do assassination attempts on important individuals that are expected to cross their waters. The piracy comes afterward when they successfully fulfill their missions.

“Pirate” Etymology

The word pirate came from the Latin word Pirata meaning, a corsair or a sea-robber. The word Pirata was derived from the Greek term peirates which, in turn, means brigand. Although peirates translates as “someone who attacks”, thus this term was used in identifying unknown individuals from the sea who suddenly attacks.

Pirates Around the World

Pirates exist throughout the world even in the early centuries of history. They almost always exist in any form of water where trading boats pass by. Pirates from Europe commonly raid the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Adriatic Sea, and the Black Sea. Asian pirates exist on the Japanese Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, or as far as the Celebes Sea in Southeast Asia. The iconic Caribbean Sea is almost always associated with pirates; whether in books, movies, and games. The colonial empires establishing colonies in North America were heavily plagued by pirate gangs that relentlessly raid trading ships and transports coming from European countries. In the modern era, Somali pirates are well-known raiders of large shipping vessels in parts of the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

Notable Pirate Names in History

Truly there are tons of recorded documents and written biographies that retell experiences about the most fearsome pirates in the earlier era. In this section, we’ll uncover a few of the renowned pirates who existed long before the modern era.

Aruj and Hizir, the Barbarossa Brothers

The Barbarossa Brothers or the Red Beard brothers are notorious pirates from North Africa. They gained their riches by capturing European vessels venturing the Mediterranean Sea. Their earlier raids started from capturing small galleons and a Sardinian warship. Eventually, the brothers became bold enough to target Spanish vessels, who by that time, are considered to have superior armada in entire Europe. The older brother, Aruj, was in charge of raiding most of the Barbary Coast. He was later on replaced by his younger brother Hizir, two years after he died. Hizir spent his remaining days raiding and fighting off Christian enemies traversing the sea towards Africa and the Middle East. His numerous success against European fleets prompted the current pope to form a Holy League fleet whose specific mission is to hunt and kill Hizir.

Francis Drake of the Sea Dog Privateers

Not all pirates are vagabond sea raiders, some are commissioned by the royalties themselves. The Sea Dog Privateers are leased by the English government to specifically attack Spanish trade ships. The iconic Sea Dog of this time was Francis Drake, also called My Pirate by Queen Elizabeth I. Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe between 1577 to 1580 and captured many Spanish ports and Spanish vessels loaded with treasures. Queen Elizabeth knighted him from his return. Eight years after his return, Francis Drake participated in the Royal Navy and helped defeat the Spanish Armada.

Jean-David Nau or L’Olonnais

L’Olonnais is one of the buccaneers who roamed the Caribbean Sea in the mid-1600s. He is best known for his excessive cruelty against those he defeated in battle. He began raiding Spanish ships upon arriving in the Caribbean. It is said that L’Olonnais likes to hack his victims to pieces or squeeze a tight cord around his victim’s necks until their eyes gouged out. In 1668, he was said to be captured by indigenous tribes and was eaten by cannibals.

Edward Teach “Blackbeard”

Blackbeard is considered to be the most iconic pirate ever known. We often see his name in fantasy novels such as Pirates of the Caribbean or even in the anime series One Piece. Not to mention, he also appeared as a ghostly entity in SpongeBob SquarePants, although he was named the Flying Dutchman in the series.

Known as Edward Teach, he was renowned for commandeering a reign of terror in the entire Caribbean Sea from 1716 to 1718. He started as a privateer under the Kingdom of Britain during the War of Spanish Succession. He mustered his craft as a sea-robber before officially shifting into piracy. He was famous for high jacking the La Concorde and renaming it as Queen Anne’s Revenge. He also was able to force-surrender a well-armed merchant ship named Great Allen. Blackbeard was defeated by Lieutenant Robert Maynard who ventured into the Caribbean to capture or kill Blackbeard. Blackbeard’s body was thrown into the inlet while his head was hanged in the bowsprit of Maynard’s sheep so he could claim his reward.

More Male Pirate Name Suggestions

• Warner Booker “Warmonger”
• Jaques Barre “The Jackal”
• Robert “Flint” Burton
• Anton Estoc

There are many more known pirates that made their names towards the legends and history books, aside from the few that we introduced above. For more pirate names ideas and concepts, try our Pirate Name Generator introduced at the beginning of this guide.

Famous Female Pirate Names in History

Are all pirate males? The answer is no. Few female pirates were so successful, the countries have a rough time subjugating them. Check out some of the iconic female pirate names in history. Beware, they are badass.

Madame Cheng

Known as or the “wife of Cheng”, she was known to have inherited the largest pirate confederation in history from her husband. Madame Cheng was a former prostitute who married Cheng I in 1801. She and his husband amassed a strong 50,000 pirate soldiers who plagued the fishing vessels and coastal villages of Southern China. Upon the death of Cheng I, Madame Cheng took over the piracy business and greatly expanded it further, with her gang having an estimated 1,800 ships and increased her army to approximately 70,000 strong. She and her gang demanded protection money from coastal communities, which is also a form of extortion, attack shipping vessels in the South China Sea, and kidnap British sailors. She was considered a number one public enemy of the Chinese government. In 1810, the British and Portuguese navy tried to bring her to justice, but instead of fighting, she freely surrendered her fleet in exchange for keeping all her riches. She retired as one of the most successful pirates and died at the age of 69 in 1844.

She was also renowned for her rigorous code of conduct for her private army. She forbids any form of rape to any female prisoners and renders it punishable by death. Deserting is punishable by cutting the deserter’s ears.

Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny is an illegitimate daughter of a prominent Irish lawyer. Her father forced her to dress as a boy and asked her to pose as a law clerk when she was young. In her young adult years, she moved to America and married a sailor in 1718, and journeyed with him on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, a known pirate-infested place. She fell in love with a buccaneer named “Calico” Jack Rackam and abandoned her current husband. This started her piracy life.

Anne Bonny is known for her courageous temper. It is said that she nearly beat a man to death when the man tried to force himself into her. She is one of the best in wielding a cutlass and sharp with pistols. She later forged a fellowship with another notorious female pirate Mary Read and they lead numerous raids against small fishing boats and trading vessels across the Caribbean in 1720. Bonny’s pirate life quickly went off when her husband’s ship was captured by a group of pirate-hunters. Calico Jack and his crew were executed, while Anne Bonny escaped and was forced to retire because she was pregnant.

Mary Read

Mary Read was one of the crews of Calico Jack Rackman. She became a pirate in the late-1710s after some buccaneers attacked the ship where she was employed. During her few months in Calico’s band, she met Anne Bonny, another female pirate. The most famous achievement of Mary Read was in October 1720, when she and Anne Bonny warded off an attempted attack of pirate-hunters. Mary Read was among those arrested when Calico’s ship was attacked. She escaped execution by claiming that she was pregnant. She died with a fever in her prison.

More Pirate Names for Girls

• Claudette the Orient
• Anette “The Mad” Melling
• Joan the Merciless
• Neris “Banshee” Woods

For more female pirate name suggestions, we recommend using this Pirate Name Generator. This automated name generator provides random ready-made pirate names that help users conceptualize names. The names are free to use and can be used as-is.

Famous Pirate Ship Names

We’re down to the last part of our pirate’s name guide. In this section, we’ll enumerate some of the famous pirate ship names that were used before by the prominent pirates. Check out these names below.

Queen Anne’s Revenge

Blackbeard became well-known for his capture of La Concorde, a massive transport ship for slaves. He transformed the ship into a war-ready ship, mounting around 40 cannons and renaming it Queen Anne’s Revenge. Using this 40-cannon modified warship, he ruled most of the Caribbean coast and the eastern coasts of North America. The ship retired in 1718 and was rediscovered in 1996 in North Carolina.

The Royal Fortune

The Royal Fortune is a 40-cannon massive warship with a crew of approximately 160 men. This ship is known to outmaneuver and has sunk many Royal Navy ships in its time. The Royal Fortune is owned by Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts and it is in this same ship where he was killed in battle in 1722.

The Whydah Gally

The Whydah Gally is a huge British ship used to transfer slaves, just like the La Concorde. It was captured by Sam Bellamy in 1717 and was modified to have 28 cannons at its arsenal. For a brief time, Sam and his crew used the ship to terrorize most of the Atlantic shipping lanes. Sadly, the ship was short-lived and was victimized by a strong storm off Cape Cod in April of the same year.

Revenge

The Revenge is probably one of the awesome ship names on this list. Unlike other ships, the Revenge was brought in 1717 by Major Stede Bonnet instead of being seized or stolen. Bonnet was not a pirate but decided to be one in the same year he bought the Revenge. The Revenge was stolen by Blackbeard after he betrayed Bonnet in one of their battles. Bonnet was executed on December 10, 1718.

Pirate ship names are melodic and beautiful. Commonly, the ships were named using female names as they are addressed as a “she” or “her”. Other ship names were based on phrases that describe either the beliefs of the owner, culture, mottos, biblical terms, and many more. Check out some more fascinating pirate ship name suggestions below.

• The Marigold
• Heaven’s Tears
• The Once Upon a Time.
• The Ol’Reliable
• Prowler
• Mermaid’s Cross
• Sunken Garden
• Le Bombardier
• Havoc
• The Kingslayer

We know you want more pirate ship names. Check out our Pirate Ship Name Generator for some more exclusive, unique, and awesome ship names. The names we provide are free to use for every patron.