Did You Know?
- Many of the most famous Renaissance figures are known to us by names they never used themselves. Leonardo da Vinci was simply 'Leonardo' to his contemporaries — 'da Vinci' just means 'from Vinci,' a village in Tuscany, and functioned as a locational identifier rather than a family surname.
- Humanist scholars of the 15th and 16th centuries regularly Latinized their names as a scholarly calling card. The German reformer Philipp Schwarzerd became Philipp Melanchthon — a direct Greek translation of his German surname ('black earth').
- Florence's ruling Medici family shaped Renaissance naming in concrete ways. Cosimo, Lorenzo, and Giovanni were not just names of Medici patriarchs — they became aspirational names for Florentine families of every station who wanted to signal loyalty or alignment with the city's dominant power.
The Renaissance Name Generator produces period-correct names from 1300 to 1620 for historical-fiction writers, Renaissance faire players and genealogy hobbyists, with separate settings for region (Italian, French, English, German, Flemish, Spanish), social class and Latin or vernacular style. Unlike the medieval name generator, it includes the humanist and classical-revival names that only appear after 1400, and unlike a general "old names" list, every name below belongs to a named region.
The tables list names that real Renaissance people carried. Copy them directly or use them as a template for the generator's output.
Italian Renaissance Names
| Name | Meaning / notable bearer |
|---|---|
| Lorenzo | Italian form of Laurentius, "from Laurentum"; Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (1449-1492) |
| Cosimo | Italian form of Cosmas; Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464), founder of Medici rule in Florence |
| Lucrezia | Italian form of Lucretia; Lucrezia Borgia |
| Ginevra | Italian form of Guinevere, also the Italian name for Geneva |
| Ludovico | Italian form of Ludwig; Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan |
| Fiammetta | "Little flame" (from fiamma); the beloved in Boccaccio's writing |
| Isabella | Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua and art patron |
| Caterina | Caterina Sforza, Lady of Forli |
| Bianca | Bianca Maria Visconti, Duchess of Milan |
| Beatrice | Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan |
| Simonetta | Simonetta Vespucci, associated with Botticelli's portraits |
| Leonardo | Leonardo da Vinci; "da Vinci" only says he came from Vinci |
| Niccolo | Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine writer |
| Galeazzo | Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (1466-1476) |
| Amerigo | Amerigo Vespucci, Florentine navigator |
| Raffaello | Italian baptismal form of Raphael, the painter |
French and Spanish Renaissance Names
| Name | Meaning / notable bearer |
|---|---|
| François | Francis I of France, patron of the arts |
| Diane | Diane de Poitiers, royal favorite at the court of Henry II |
| Catherine | Catherine de' Medici, queen of France |
| Marguerite | Marguerite de Navarre, writer and sister of Francis I |
| René | From Latin Renatus, "born again" |
| Ambroise | Ambroise Pare, French surgeon |
| Clement | Clement Marot, court poet |
| Pierre | Pierre de Ronsard, poet of the Pleiade |
| Anne | Anne of Brittany, twice queen of France |
| Isabel | Isabella I of Castile |
| Fernando | Ferdinand II of Aragon |
| Catalina | Spanish form of Catherine; Catalina (Catherine) of Aragon |
| Iñigo | Birth name of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits |
| Hernan | Hernan Cortes, conquistador |
| Gonzalo | Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, called El Gran Capitan |
| Diego | Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, first governor of Cuba |
English Renaissance Names
| Name | Meaning / notable bearer |
|---|---|
| Thomas | Thomas More, humanist and author of Utopia |
| William | William Tyndale, translator of the New Testament |
| Henry | Henry VIII, king of England |
| Margaret | Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII |
| Anne | Anne Boleyn, queen of England |
| Katherine | Katherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII |
| Jane | Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII |
| Cecily | The usual English form of Cecilia during the Middle Ages |
| Christopher | Christopher Marlowe, playwright |
| Edmund | Edmund Howard, Tudor courtier |
| Fletcher | Occupational surname: an arrow maker |
| Mercer | Occupational surname: a cloth merchant |
German and Flemish Renaissance Names
| Name | Meaning / notable bearer |
|---|---|
| Wolfgang | From Old German "wolf" and "gang" (path); named for a 10th-century bishop of Regensburg |
| Ursula | Roman cognomen meaning "little bear"; a widely venerated saint's name |
| Albrecht | Albrecht Durer, painter and printmaker of Nuremberg |
| Hans | Short form of Johann; Hans Holbein the Younger, painter |
| Katharina | Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther |
| Ulrich | Ulrich von Hutten, humanist and writer |
| Maximilian | Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor |
| Philipp | Philipp Schwartzerdt, who Hellenized his surname ("black earth") as Melanchthon |
| Jan | Jan van Eyck, painter in Bruges |
| Pieter | Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painter |
| Hieronymus | Latinized form used for the painter Hieronymus Bosch |
| Desiderius | Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist |
How Renaissance Names Were Built
Names from this period were built from three sources: the saints' calendar, older Germanic traditions, and, from the 1400s, classical antiquity. Italian humanists reached for Roman and Greek material, so Lucrezia and Cosimo sit beside the older saints' names. English parish records changed far more slowly, and William, John, Thomas and Margaret still dominate them well into the 1500s.
Surnames worked differently by class. A Florentine noble carried a chain such as Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici. Italian surnames often began as patronymics like "Francesco de Bernardo," and the "de'" in Lorenzo de' Medici means "of the Medici." A weaver was often just Jan, or Jan de Wever if the guild needed to tell two of them apart.
Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici: given name, father, dynasty
Latin Names Replace the Surname
Scholars sometimes swapped their whole name for a Latin or Greek one. Philipp Schwartzerdt became Melanchthon, a Greek rendering of his German surname, on the advice of his great-uncle Johann Reuchlin. A Latinized name replaced the vernacular name, and it was not added to it. That is why the generator's Latin style never returns "Laurentius de' Medici" but a single form such as Laurentius Medices.
How the Generator Constrains Its Output
Region, class and style each steer the result. Italian settings favor vowel endings, French ones use particles like de and du, and English ones lean on occupational and locational surnames. Particles stay lowercase (Niccolo di Marco, never Di Marco), and trade or place identifiers attach directly to the given name, so Giovanni Fabbro is possible but Giovanni Fabbro-Sarto is not. With nothing selected, a batch of five gives three plain given-plus-surname names, one with a particle, and one Latin or trade-style name. It never produces digits, symbols or fantasy spellings.
- Use the vernacular form for the region: Lorenzo in Italy, not Laurentius
- Give nobles a patronymic or family chain
- Keep English characters in the William-Thomas-Margaret register unless they are scholars
- Fantasy spellings like Lorenz'o or Aelindra
- Classical names such as Octavia for a rural English peasant
- Modern names like Jayden or Madison for a 15th-century character
Common Questions
What is a good name for a Ren faire character?
Pick a region first, then a class. A merchant might be Giovanni Strozzi, a guard Hans Weber, and a lady-in-waiting Anne Percy. Faire names do not need to be famous, only plausible, so a common given name plus a trade or place identifier works better than a copied royal name.
What are Italian Renaissance names for boys and girls?
For boys: Lorenzo, Cosimo, Ludovico, Galeazzo and Niccolo. For girls: Lucrezia, Caterina, Bianca, Isabella and Ginevra. Add a family name like de' Medici or Sforza, or a patronymic like di Marco, for a noble or merchant character.
Do English and German Renaissance names differ from Italian ones?
Yes. English names stayed close to medieval habit for most of the period, while Italian naming took up classical names earlier. German names kept Germanic elements such as Wolfgang and Albrecht beside saints' names, and Flemish records are full of Jan and Pieter.
Can I use a Renaissance name for a real baby?
Many are still in use. Behind the Name lists Ginevra as ranking third in Italy in 2024 and Cosimo as 113th.
Sources
- Italian Renaissance, Wikipedia
- Italian name, Wikipedia
- Lorenzo, Behind the Name
- Philip Melanchthon, Wikipedia
Updated September 2026: replaced the essay-first guide with 56 Renaissance names in four regional tables, sources, and notes on how the generator constrains names.
