94 Female Pirate Names
By The PirateShipName editorial desk · Last updated August 2026
Here are 130 plus female pirate names, grouped into period-authentic names, earned epithets, captain names and fantasy options, along with the history of the real women the genre is built on.
That history matters for naming, because the three most famous women in piracy were not known by nicknames. Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Grace O'Malley are remembered under their own names, which tells you something useful: a woman in this world did not need an epithet to be feared, and a plain name often reads as more dangerous than an invented one.
Or roll your own
Period-authentic names
First names and surnames genuinely common in the late 1600s and early 1700s. These sound of the era without being invented.
Earned epithets
Built the way real crews built them: an article and one visible trait. Given, never chosen.
Captain names
Full names with rank, for characters who command rather than crew.
Fantasy and mythic names
For settings where the sea has magic in it. Softer sounds, larger imagery.
Short names
One or two syllables. Fits a character sheet and carries across a deck.
Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Anne Bonny and Mary Read sailed with Calico Jack Rackham in the Caribbean and were captured with his crew in 1720. Both were tried in Jamaica and both were convicted. Both escaped immediate execution by pleading pregnancy, which under English law of the period delayed a death sentence. Mary Read died in prison. What happened to Anne Bonny afterwards is genuinely not known, and any source that tells you confidently is guessing.
For naming purposes the interesting detail is that neither woman used a nickname. They were tried, reported and remembered under their own names, at a time when their male crewmates were known as Calico Jack and Blackbeard. If you want a female pirate character to read as serious rather than costumed, giving her a plain name is historically the more accurate choice.
Grace O'Malley
Grace O'Malley, or Gráinne Ní Mháille, was an Irish noblewoman who led a seafaring dynasty off the west coast of Ireland in the 16th century, roughly a century and a half before the Caribbean golden age. She commanded ships, controlled territory and, according to Irish and English records, met Queen Elizabeth the First in 1593 to negotiate directly.
She is a useful model precisely because she does not fit the Caribbean template. She was a chieftain who used ships, not a fugitive who stole one, and her name carries no epithet at all. For worldbuilding, she is the reminder that a sea power can be inherited rather than seized.
Naming a female pirate character
Our recommendation is to start with a plain period name and only add an epithet if the story earns it later. That mirrors the real record and it gives you somewhere to go. A character who becomes Bess the Iron-Handed in chapter twenty is more interesting than one introduced that way in chapter one.
Avoid names built on the character being a woman. Epithets like the Sea Witch or the Pirate Queen make gender the notable thing, which is exactly what the historical record does not do. Anne Bonny was not tried as a curiosity. She was tried as a pirate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good female pirate names?
Plain period names read strongest: Anne Sharpe, Bess Ravenscroft, Hester Crowe, Winifred Barlow. The real women in piracy were remembered under their own names rather than nicknames, which is why plain names sound authentic.
Who were the most famous female pirates?
Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who sailed with Calico Jack Rackham and were captured and tried in Jamaica in 1720, and Grace O'Malley, a 16th-century Irish chieftain who commanded a seafaring dynasty and negotiated with Elizabeth the First in 1593.
What is a female pirate called?
A pirate. There is no separate historical term, and contemporary records call women in piracy the same thing they call men. Words like pirate queen are modern additions rather than period usage.
What happened to Anne Bonny?
She was convicted of piracy in Jamaica in 1720 and escaped immediate execution by pleading pregnancy. What became of her after that is not established by reliable record. Any confident account of her later life is speculation.