A Gunslinger doesn't earn a reputation with a family crest or a spell component pouch — they earn it with a single shot everyone in town is still talking about. That's the naming pattern this generator targets specifically: birth name first, earned alias second, a structure borrowed straight from real Old West gunfighter history rather than generic fantasy titling. Below is a roster of the actual frontier figures — lawmen, outlaws, and a few people who were both at different points in their lives — whose names and reputations shaped that convention.
None of the names below are D&D canon. There's no official Wizards of the Coast Gunslinger class, so "canon" for this archetype means something narrower and more specific — see the Sources section for the one published homebrew example we could actually verify.
Lawmen and Peace Officers
| Name | Historical context |
|---|---|
| Wyatt Earp | Deputy at the 1881 O.K. Corral gunfight, later mythologized by a 1931 bestselling biography |
| Bat Masterson | Army scout, sheriff, and gambler who later became a New York sportswriter |
| Pat Garrett | Sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, remembered for killing Billy the Kid in 1881 |
| Bill Tilghman | Deputy U.S. Marshal who single-handedly captured outlaw Bill Doolin without firing a shot |
| Heck Thomas | One of the "Three Guardsmen" lawmen who hunted down the Doolin-Dalton gang in Indian Territory |
| Dallas Stoudenmire | El Paso marshal known for the "Four Dead in Five Seconds" gunfight, three days into the job |
| Elfego Baca | 19-year-old deputy who survived a 36-hour siege by dozens of gunmen in 1884 New Mexico |
| Wild Bill Hickok | Frontier marshal and scout whose legend grew from exaggerated newspaper tales of his gunfights |
Outlaws and Gunfighters
| Name | Historical context |
|---|---|
| Doc Holliday | Dentist-turned-gambler and gunfighter, Wyatt Earp's ally at the O.K. Corral |
| John Wesley Hardin | Prolific young gunfighter with one of the highest killing tallies of the era |
| Billy the Kid | Born Henry McCarty; Lincoln County War fighter tracked down and killed by Pat Garrett |
| Johnny Ringo | Cochise County outlaw whose 1882 death remains disputed between suicide and murder |
| Clay Allison | Gunfighter said to have shot Chunk Colbert dead over dinner in a New Mexico hotel |
| Butch Cassidy | Born Robert LeRoy Parker; led the Wild Bunch gang before fleeing to South America |
| Sundance Kid | Born Harry Longabaugh; took his alias from a Wyoming jail town after his 1887 arrest |
| Black Bart | Born Charles E. Boles; polite stagecoach robber who twice left poems at his crime scenes |
| Cherokee Bill | Born Crawford Goldsby; Indian Territory outlaw executed at age 20 |
| Bill Doolin | Founder of the Wild Bunch (Doolin-Dalton) gang, killed by lawman Heck Thomas in 1896 |
| Cole Younger | Confederate guerrilla turned James-Younger Gang leader, captured after the failed Northfield raid |
| Frank James | Jesse James's older brother and fellow James-Younger Gang rider, later acquitted at trial |
| Henry Starr | Early-1900s bank robber who later played a dramatized version of himself in a 1919 silent film |
| Luke Short | Gambler and saloon owner whose gunfights with Charlie Storms and Jim Courtright made him famous |
| Tom Horn | Army scout turned hired range detective, hanged in 1903 for a killing he denied to the end |
Women of the Frontier
| Name | Historical context |
|---|---|
| Belle Starr | Called the "Bandit Queen" after a sensationalized 1889 dime novel followed her unsolved murder |
| Big Nose Kate | Born Mary Katherine Horony; Doc Holliday's longtime companion in Tombstone |
| Annie Oakley | Sharpshooter nicknamed "Little Sure Shot" by Sitting Bull; star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show |
| Calamity Jane | Born Martha Jane Canary; frontierswoman and Wild Bill Hickok acquaintance turned show performer |
| Rose Dunn | Known as "Rose of Cimarron" for her romance with outlaw George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb |
| Poker Alice | Born Alice Ivers; English-born gambler famed for high-stakes poker and faro across the frontier |
Canonical to a Published Homebrew Source
D&D 5e's Gunslinger has no official Wizards of the Coast lore, but it does have one widely recognized canonical origin: Matt Mercer's homebrew archetype, built for Taliesin Jaffe's Critical Role character before the game had any official firearms rules.
| Name | Source |
|---|---|
| Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III ("Percy") | Critical Role's Vox Machina — the character Matt Mercer built his Gunslinger archetype around |
Building the Alias, Not Just the Name
Every name above earned its second half. Wyatt Earp didn't start as a legend — a newspaper-friendly biography published decades after his death did most of that work. Belle Starr's "Bandit Queen" title came from a dime novelist who never met her. That's the real lesson for a character sheet: the alias isn't handed out at character creation, and it doesn't have to be accurate to stick.
Keep the birth name plain. Silas, Eli, Josefina, Marcus — names that could belong to any frontier settler before anything happened to them. Save the specificity for the alias, and keep it short enough to shout across a table. "Quickdraw" works in the heat of a scene. "The Unerring Marksman of the Western Territories" doesn't, no matter how accurate it is.
Match the alias to the archetype's temperament. A quick draw duelist earns something clipped and immediate — Ringo's reputation was built on a single tense standoff with Doc Holliday, not a career's worth of paperwork. A bounty hunter's name should sound like a ledger entry, not a boast; Pat Garrett is remembered for one specific kill, not a body count. A trick shot performer can get away with a flashier tag, the way Annie Oakley's "Little Sure Shot" doubled as both a nickname and an advertisement.
Not every gunslinger needs one. Plenty of the names above — Frank James, Cole Younger — carried real menace without a stage name attached. A rookie character with just a birth name reads as more grounded than one who shows up to session one already legendary.
One thing this history makes clear: the line between lawman and outlaw was thinner than the archetype usually assumes. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Wild Bill Hickok all worked both sides of it. Pat Garrett was a sheriff who'd ridden with outlaws before he hunted one down. If your table wants a Gunslinger with a complicated past, that's not a stretch from the source material — it's closer to the norm than a clean-cut hero ever was.
If your table wants the broader Wild West aesthetic beyond D&D mechanics, the Wild West name generator covers cowboys, lawmen, and settlers more generally, and the D&D name generator is a good starting point for any character that doesn't need a firearms-specific build.
Common Questions
Is Gunslinger an official D&D 5e class or subclass?
No. Wizards of the Coast has never published an official Gunslinger fighter archetype for 5th Edition — it doesn't appear in any Unearthed Arcana playtest document or sourcebook. The version most tables actually use traces back to Critical Role's Matt Mercer, who built a homebrew Gunslinger for Taliesin Jaffe's character, Percival de Rolo, before 5e had any firearms rules at all. Mercer's version (and its many fan variants) is what this generator is tuned for.
What's the difference between the five gunslinger archetypes?
Quick Draw Duelists are built around speed and reflexes; Long-Range Marksmen around patience and precision at distance; Trick Shot Performers around showmanship and flair; Bounty Hunters around tracking and collecting debts rather than fighting fair; and Outlaw-Turned-Heroes carry a criminal past that still colors their present reputation. Each shapes a different alias style.
Does a Gunslinger need an alias to sound right?
No — a newer or lower-profile Gunslinger can go by just a birth name, which often reads as more grounded for a starting character. Real frontier figures like Frank James or Cole Younger built fearsome reputations without ever picking up a stage name, so an alias is something a character earns over a campaign, not a prerequisite for level 1.
Sources
- List of Old West gunfighters — Wikipedia
- Wyatt Earp — Wikipedia
- Belle Starr — Wikipedia
- Fighter 101: Make Your Own Percival de Rolo With the Gunslinger Homebrew Subclass — D&D Beyond
Updated September 2026: added 30 curated names (29 real historical Old West figures plus one verified published-homebrew example), corrected a false claim about an official Wizards of the Coast Gunslinger playtest, added sources, trimmed essay.
