Real cowboy names were earned: a brand, a drive, a remark, written down.
Real cowboy names were earned, not picked. A bronc rider became Booger Red after a boy's remark about his burned face. A cowhand became 80 John for the brand he burned into a rancher's cattle. This guide gives the documented incident behind each nickname, and sorts the famous names into real, alias and folklore.
What is an old cowboy name?
An old cowboy name is usually a nickname that came from one event, one brand or one place. The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) records the incident behind several of them, and the table below sets them side by side.
| Nickname | Person | Where the name came from | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booger Red | Sam Privett, bronc rider | A small boy looked at Privett's mangled face and made a remark that stuck for life | TSHA |
| 80 John | Daniel Webster Wallace | He branded Clay Mann's cattle with a large "80" | TSHA |
| Texas Jack | John B. Omohundro Jr. | Grateful citizens of Tennessee gave it after a post-Civil War cattle drive | TSHA |
| Buffalo Bill | William F. Cody | An 1867 job hunting bison for the Kansas Pacific Railroad | Smithsonian Magazine |
| Dusky Deamon | Bill Pickett | His rodeo and fair billing (TSHA's spelling) | TSHA |
| Red River Dick | Nat Love, by his own account | Named by the boss of the Duval outfit when he joined at Dodge City, Kansas | Love, 1907 |
| Deadwood Dick | Nat Love, by his own account | Named by a crowd at Deadwood after a roping contest | Love, 1907 |
The last two rows are Nat Love's self-report. They come from his own 1907 book, and no third-party source appears in the record used here. Read them as his story of himself. Our Black cowboys guide covers Love, Pickett and the dispute over the Deadwood tale.
What is a good gunslinger name?
A good gunslinger name comes with a story, and the best-known one comes with a correction. Legend gives Billy the Kid the name William H. Bonney, but TSHA says scholars have determined that Bonney was one of a series of aliases he used.
TSHA lists him as Henry McCarty. The name that filled the newspapers was a working alias.
Outlaw and lawman names tell you what people called a man. They rarely tell you who he was born as.
What is a Texan name?
A Texan cowboy name can be a nickname, a borrowed surname or a stage billing, and TSHA documents all three. Bob Lemmons, a mustanger, adopted his employer's last name out of respect, and TSHA says his birth name is not known.
Tony Esquivel was born in Texas in 1862 to a Mexican father and a Polish mother. Buffalo Bill's Wild West show billed him as "Champion Vaquero of Mexico."
Desiderio Perez went by "Jesse." In 1888 he helped drive 1,200 cattle to Dodge City, Kansas, before joining the Rangers. TSHA has an entry for each man.
The vaquero guide covers the Mexican roots of the trade.
What is a male cowboy called?
A male cowboy is called a cowboy, cowhand or cowpoke, and the first of those started as an insult. The Online Etymology Dictionary says cowboy was earlier a name for marauding loyalists near New York during the Revolution, in 1775.
Cowhand is attested by 1852 in American English. Cowpoke is said to date to 1881, but the same entry adds that it was not in popular use until the 1940s, so treat the early date as unsettled.
For buckaroo and vaquero, read the vaquero guide. It owns that word history.
Which famous cowboy names are folklore or borrowed?
Pecos Bill is folklore, and Billy the Kid's Bonney is an alias. TSHA says Pecos Bill grew out of tall tales that southwestern range hands told to pass the time, and that his originator is unknown.
| Name | What it is | What TSHA records |
|---|---|---|
| Pecos Bill | Folklore | A mythical cowboy from range-hand tall tales; originator unknown |
| Billy the Kid (Bonney) | Alias | Bonney was one of a series of aliases; see Henry McCarty |
| Bob Lemmons | Borrowed surname | Adopted his employer's last name; birth name not known |
| Maverick | A real man's surname | Unbranded cattle of landholder Samuel A. Maverick were called "Maverick's" |
The word maverick began as a real man's surname. TSHA adds that an enslaved nineteen-year-old named Jack was left to manage the herd.
Which name should you use?
Pick a nickname with an incident behind it if you want the real thing. Booger Red, 80 John and Texas Jack each mark one event, one brand or one drive.
Pick a plain given name such as Jesse if you want the working-cowboy register without a costume. Pick Pecos Bill or Deadwood Dick if you want a tall tale, and say whose tale it is.
Quick answers
What did Will Rogers say when Bill Pickett died?
TSHA records that Rogers announced Pickett's funeral on the 101 Ranch on his radio show, commenting: "Bill Pickett never had an enemy, even the steers wouldn't hurt old Bill." TSHA gives Pickett's death as 2 April 1932.
Why was Bill Pickett billed as something other than Black?
TSHA says he was often billed as an Indian, or not identified as Black, in order to compete against white riders. The "Dusky Deamon" billing sits in the same entry.
Did cowboys leave written records?
Some did. The Sid Richardson Museum says the earliest known diary of a trail drive was kept by George Duffield in 1866. Texas cowboy Jack Bailey kept a journal on an 1868 drive, at age 37.
Who led the 1883 cowboy strike?
TSHA says the original organizers were led by Tom Harris of the LS. Twenty-four men signed the ultimatum and set March 31 as their strike date.
Where can I read Nat Love's own words?
His 1907 Life and Adventures is posted in full by UNC's Documenting the American South. Both nickname passages sit in that text.
Bottom line
The names worth borrowing carry a documented story: a brand, a drive, a remark, a billing. Sort each famous name into real, alias or folklore first, and give Nat Love's two nicknames as his own account.
Where to go next
- Cowboy boots
- Black cowboys: the history and the people
- Vaquero: the Mexican cowboy
- The history of the cowboy
Sources: Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas (entries for Privett, Wallace, Omohundro, Pickett, McCarty, Lemmons, Esquivel, Perez, Mavericks and Mavericking, Pecos Bill, The 1883 Cowboy Strike); Smithsonian Magazine, "Ten Things You Didn't Know About Buffalo Bill"; Nat Love, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love (1907), via UNC Documenting the American South; Online Etymology Dictionary, "cowboy"; Sid Richardson Museum, "Cowboy Journals and the Art of Handwriting."
