★ Anticapitalist Baby Names
Archive— 136 entries on file —

The directory of
good comrades.

Two centuries of names worth borrowing. Search by name, country, or tendency. Not exhaustive. Suggestions accepted at the next mass meeting.

  • Alexandra

    1872–1952

    Kollontai, Russia

    ♀ Female

    First woman ambassador; theorist of free love and the new woman.

    #bolshevik#feminism

  • Allende

    1908–1973

    Allende, Chile

    ♂ Male

    Democratically elected socialist. Died defending La Moneda.

    #socialism

  • Amilcar

    1924–1973

    Cabral, Guinea-Bissau

    ♂ Male

    Agronomist who led the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

    #anticolonial

  • Andreas

    1943–1977

    Baader, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Co-founder of the Red Army Faction. Died in Stammheim under disputed circumstances.

    #militant

  • Angela

    b. 1944

    Davis, USA

    ♀ Female

    Philosopher, abolitionist, Black communist.

    #abolition#marxism

  • Antonio

    1891–1937

    Gramsci, Italy

    ♂ Male

    Wrote the Prison Notebooks while Mussolini tried to break his mind.

    #marxism#theory

  • Anuradha

    1954–2008

    Ghandy, India

    ♀ Female

    Maoist organizer in central India; theorist of caste, class, and patriarchy.

    #marxism#feminism

  • Arundhati

    b. 1961

    Roy, India

    ♀ Female

    Novelist and pamphleteer against empire, dams, and Hindutva.

    #literature#anticolonial

  • Assata

    b. 1947

    Shakur, USA/Cuba

    ♀ Female

    Black Liberation Army member; escaped a US prison and lived.

    #abolition

  • August

    1840–1913

    Bebel, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Co-founder of German Social Democracy; wrote Woman and Socialism.

    #socialism

  • Augusto

    1895–1934

    Sandino, Nicaragua

    ♂ Male

    Led guerrillas against US occupation. Assassinated under a flag of truce.

    #anticolonial

  • Bayard

    1912–1987

    Rustin, USA

    ♂ Male

    Queer Black socialist; architect of the 1963 March on Washington.

    #socialism#civil rights

  • Berta

    1971–2016

    Cáceres, Honduras

    ♀ Female

    Lenca leader assassinated for stopping a dam.

    #indigenous#ecology

  • Big Bill

    1869–1928

    Haywood, USA

    ♂ Male

    Wobbly organizer of the One Big Union.

    #iww#labor

  • Bill

    1869–1928

    Haywood, USA

    ♂ Male

    Wobbly organizer of the One Big Union.

    #iww#labor

  • Bobby

    b. 1936

    Seale, USA

    ♂ Male

    Co-founder of the Black Panther Party. Bound and gagged in court for it.

    #panthers

  • Buenaventura

    1896–1936

    Durruti, Spain

    ♂ Male

    Anarchist militant of the Spanish Revolution.

    #anarchism#spanish civil war

  • Camilo

    1932–1959

    Cienfuegos, Cuba

    ♂ Male

    Cuban revolutionary commander; vanished in a plane the year of victory.

    #revolution

  • Carlos

    1894–1930

    Mariátegui (José Carlos), Peru

    ♂ Male

    Indigenous-Marxist synthesis from the Andes. Seven Essays still bite.

    #marxism#indigenous

  • Cedric

    1940–2016

    Robinson, USA

    ♂ Male

    Theorist of racial capitalism and the Black Radical Tradition.

    #theory#black radicalism

  • Che

    1928–1967

    Guevara, Argentina/Cuba

    ♂ Male

    Doctor turned guerrilla. Hasta la victoria, siempre.

    #revolution

  • Chico

    1944–1988

    Mendes, Brazil

    ♂ Male

    Rubber tapper and Amazon defender. Shot by ranchers.

    #labor#ecology

  • Chokwe

    1947–2014

    Lumumba, USA

    ♂ Male

    Republic of New Afrika lawyer; mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.

    #black radicalism

  • Chris

    1942–1993

    Hani, South Africa

    ♂ Male

    SACP leader assassinated on the brink of South African liberation.

    #anti-apartheid#communism

  • Clara

    1857–1933

    Zetkin, Germany

    ♀ Female

    Founded International Working Women's Day.

    #socialism#feminism

  • Clara

    1886–1982

    Lemlich, Ukraine/USA

    ♀ Female

    Sparked the 1909 Uprising of the 20,000 against sweatshop conditions.

    #labor#feminism

  • Claudia

    1915–1964

    Jones, Trinidad/UK

    ♀ Female

    Founded London's Notting Hill Carnival; deported for Black communism.

    #communism#black radicalism

  • Cornelius

    1922–1997

    Castoriadis, Greece/France

    ♂ Male

    Socialism or Barbarism — autonomy against bureaucracy.

    #theory#councilism

  • Daniel

    1904–1988

    Guérin, France

    ♂ Male

    Queer anarcho-communist; bridged libertarian socialism and gay liberation.

    #anarchism#queer

  • David

    1961–2020

    Graeber, USA

    ♂ Male

    'We are the 99%.' Debt: The First 5,000 Years.

    #anarchism#anthropology

  • Dolores

    1895–1989

    Ibárruri 'La Pasionaria', Spain

    ♀ Female

    '¡No pasarán!' Voice of the Spanish Republic.

    #communism#spanish civil war

  • Domitila

    1937–2012

    Barrios de Chungara, Bolivia

    ♀ Female

    Miner's wife who organized the housewives' committee that brought down a dictator.

    #labor#feminism

  • Edward

    1924–1993

    Thompson, UK

    ♂ Male

    Wrote The Making of the English Working Class. Made history from below.

    #marxism#history

  • Eleanor

    1855–1898

    Marx, UK

    ♀ Female

    Karl's daughter; organizer of the London dockers and gas workers.

    #socialism#labor

  • Elizabeth

    1890–1964

    Gurley Flynn, USA

    ♀ Female

    'Rebel girl' of the Wobblies. Later chaired the CPUSA.

    #iww#communism

  • Emiliano

    1879–1919

    Zapata, Mexico

    ♂ Male

    Tierra y libertad. Led the southern army of the Mexican Revolution.

    #agrarian#revolution

  • Emma

    1869–1940

    Goldman, Lithuania/USA

    ♀ Female

    Anarchist organizer, writer, and free-speech firebrand.

    #anarchism#feminism

  • Engels

    1820–1895

    Engels, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Co-author of the Manifesto; funded Marx with mill money turned against the mill.

    #theory#communism

  • Eric

    1917–2012

    Hobsbawm, UK

    ♂ Male

    Historian of the long 19th and short 20th centuries.

    #marxism#history

  • Ernst

    1885–1977

    Bloch, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Philosopher of hope and the not-yet.

    #marxism#theory

  • Errico

    1853–1932

    Malatesta, Italy

    ♂ Male

    Italian anarchist agitator across three continents.

    #anarchism

  • Eugene

    1855–1926

    Debs, USA

    ♂ Male

    Five-time socialist presidential candidate; ran the last campaign from prison.

    #socialism#labor

  • Fannie

    1917–1977

    Lou Hamer, USA

    ♀ Female

    Sharecropper turned freedom fighter. 'Sick and tired of being sick and tired.'

    #civil rights

  • Federica

    1905–1994

    Montseny, Spain

    ♀ Female

    Anarchist minister in the Spanish Republic; first woman in a Spanish cabinet.

    #anarchism

  • Fidel

    1926–2016

    Castro, Cuba

    ♂ Male

    Led the Cuban Revolution. Outlived eleven US presidents.

    #revolution#communism

  • Frantz

    1925–1961

    Fanon, Martinique/Algeria

    ♂ Male

    Theorist of decolonization; psychiatrist of the wretched of the earth.

    #anticolonial

  • Fred

    1948–1969

    Hampton, USA

    ♂ Male

    Black Panther chairman murdered in his sleep at 21 by Chicago police.

    #panthers

  • Frederick

    1820–1895

    Engels, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Co-author of the Manifesto; funded Marx with mill money turned against the mill.

    #theory

  • Frida

    1907–1954

    Kahlo, Mexico

    ♀ Female

    Communist painter who made personal suffering into anti-imperialist art.

    #art#communism

  • Friedrich

    1820–1895

    Engels, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Same person, German spelling. Choose your team.

    #theory

  • George

    1941–1971

    Jackson, USA

    ♂ Male

    Soledad Brother. Shot dead by guards at San Quentin.

    #abolition#panthers

  • Gerrard

    1609–1676

    Winstanley, England

    ♂ Male

    Digger who tried to make the earth a common treasury in 1649.

    #agrarian#early communism

  • Grace

    1915–2015

    Lee Boggs, USA

    ♀ Female

    Detroit philosopher-organizer for seven decades.

    #marxism#black radicalism

  • Gramsci

    1891–1937

    Gramsci, Italy

    ♂ Male

    Wrote the Prison Notebooks while Mussolini tried to break his mind.

    #marxism#theory

  • Guy

    1931–1994

    Debord, France

    ♂ Male

    Society of the Spectacle. Drank, wrote, refused.

    #situationism#theory

  • Harriet

    c.1822–1913

    Tubman, USA

    ♀ Female

    Conductor of the Underground Railroad. Armed scout for the Union army.

    #abolition

  • Harry

    1912–2002

    Hay, USA

    ♂ Male

    Communist organizer who founded the Mattachine Society — gay liberation's first cell.

    #queer#communism

  • Helen

    1880–1968

    Keller, USA

    ♀ Female

    Yes, that Helen Keller. Wobbly, suffragist, socialist.

    #socialism

  • Henri

    1901–1991

    Lefebvre, France

    ♂ Male

    Theorist of everyday life and the right to the city.

    #marxism#urban

  • Ho

    1890–1969

    Chí Minh, Vietnam

    ♂ Male

    Led Vietnamese independence against France, Japan, and the US.

    #anticolonial#communism

  • Howard

    1922–2010

    Zinn, USA

    ♂ Male

    A People's History — taught a generation to read against the grain.

    #history

  • Huey

    1942–1989

    Newton, USA

    ♂ Male

    Co-founder of the Black Panther Party.

    #panthers

  • James

    1901–1989

    C.L.R. James, Trinidad/UK

    ♂ Male

    Wrote The Black Jacobins. Cricket, Haiti, revolution.

    #marxism#panafrican

  • Jean

    1859–1914

    Jaurès, France

    ♂ Male

    French socialist assassinated for trying to stop the First World War.

    #socialism

  • Jiang

    1893–1976

    (many) — see Mao

    ⚥ Unisex

    Placeholder — see entries below.

    #maoism

  • Joe

    1879–1915

    Hill, Sweden/USA

    ♂ Male

    Songwriter and organizer; framed and shot by a Utah firing squad.

    #iww#labor

  • John

    1887–1920

    Reed, USA

    ♂ Male

    Wrote Ten Days That Shook the World. Buried in the Kremlin wall.

    #communism#journalism

  • Jones

    1837–1930

    Harris Jones, Ireland/USA

    ♀ Female

    'The most dangerous woman in America.' Organized miners into her nineties.

    #labor

  • José

    1853–1895

    Martí, Cuba

    ♂ Male

    Poet and organizer of Cuban independence.

    #anticolonial

  • Karl

    1818–1883

    Marx, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Wrote the manual. Still relevant. Still spooking landlords.

    #theory#communism

  • Kwame

    1909–1972

    Nkrumah, Ghana

    ♂ Male

    First president of independent Ghana; theorist of neocolonialism.

    #panafrican#anticolonial

  • Leila

    b. 1944

    Khaled, Palestine

    ♀ Female

    PFLP militant; face of the Palestinian struggle.

    #anticolonial

  • Lenin

    1870–1924

    Ulyanov, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Led the October Revolution. Wrote a lot of pamphlets very fast.

    #bolshevik#revolution

  • Leon

    1879–1940

    Trotsky, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Organized the Red Army; killed in Mexico by Stalin's ice axe.

    #marxism#revolution

  • Lev

    1828–1910

    Tolstoy, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Christian anarchist; renounced his estate and his name on the title page.

    #anarchism#pacifism

  • Louis

    1918–1990

    Althusser, France

    ♂ Male

    Reading Capital. Ideology. Symptoms.

    #marxism#theory

  • Louise

    1830–1905

    Michel, France

    ♀ Female

    Schoolteacher of the Paris Commune; deported for refusing to apologize.

    #anarchism#commune

  • Lucy

    1853–1942

    Parsons, USA

    ♀ Female

    Black labor organizer Chicago police called 'more dangerous than a thousand rioters.'

    #labor#anarchism

  • Mahatma

    1869–1948

    Gandhi, India

    ♂ Male

    Anti-imperialist of the spinning wheel. Complicated. Read his critics too.

    #anticolonial

  • Malcolm

    1925–1965

    X / el-Shabazz, USA

    ♂ Male

    By any means necessary.

    #black radicalism

  • Manuel

    active 1994–

    Marcos / Galeano, Mexico

    ♂ Male

    See Subcomandante. Same mask, different syllable.

    #zapatista

  • Mao

    1893–1976

    Zedong, China

    ♂ Male

    Led the Chinese Revolution. A whole tendency bears the name.

    #maoism#revolution

  • Mark

    1968–2017

    Fisher, UK

    ♂ Male

    Capitalist Realism. Named the mood of a generation.

    #theory

  • Marsha

    1945–1992

    P. Johnson, USA

    ♀ Female

    Stonewall vet; STAR co-founder. Pay it no mind.

    #queer#liberation

  • Martin

    1929–1968

    Luther King Jr., USA

    ♂ Male

    By the end, a democratic socialist organizing the Poor People's Campaign.

    #civil rights#socialism

  • Marx

    1818–1883

    Marx, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Wrote the manual. Still relevant. Still spooking landlords.

    #theory#communism

  • Mary

    1837–1930

    Harris 'Mother Jones', Ireland/USA

    ♀ Female

    'The most dangerous woman in America.' Organized miners into her seventies.

    #labor

  • Maurice

    1944–1983

    Bishop, Grenada

    ♂ Male

    Led the Grenada Revolution. Executed; then the US invaded.

    #revolution

  • Max

    1806–1856

    Stirner — actually Johann Schmidt

    ♂ Male

    Egoist anarchist. Loves a footnote.

    #anarchism

  • Mikhail

    1814–1876

    Bakunin, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Father of collectivist anarchism. Marx's frenemy.

    #anarchism

  • Mother

    1837–1930

    Jones (Mary Harris), Ireland/USA

    ♀ Female

    'The most dangerous woman in America.' Organized miners into their seventies.

    #labor

  • Murray

    1921–2006

    Bookchin, USA

    ♂ Male

    Architect of social ecology and libertarian municipalism.

    #ecology#anarchism

  • Nawal

    1931–2021

    El Saadawi, Egypt

    ♀ Female

    Egyptian doctor, novelist, and socialist feminist. Jailed for it.

    #feminism#socialism

  • Nelson

    1918–2013

    Mandela, South Africa

    ♂ Male

    Spent 27 years in prison. Walked out and negotiated the end of apartheid.

    #anti-apartheid

  • Nestor

    1888–1934

    Makhno, Ukraine

    ♂ Male

    Anarchist commander of the Free Territory of Ukraine.

    #anarchism

  • Olive

    1952–1979

    Morris, Jamaica/UK

    ♀ Female

    British Black Panther; squatter rights organizer in Brixton.

    #black radicalism#feminism

  • Pancho

    1878–1923

    Villa, Mexico

    ♂ Male

    Northern general of the Mexican Revolution; invaded the United States once.

    #revolution

  • Paolo

    1921–1997

    Freire, Brazil

    ♂ Male

    Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Literacy as a tool of liberation.

    #education

  • Patrice

    1925–1961

    Lumumba, DRC

    ♂ Male

    First PM of independent Congo. Killed by Belgian/CIA design.

    #anticolonial

  • Paul

    1898–1976

    Robeson, USA

    ♂ Male

    Singer, actor, athlete, communist. The State Department took his passport.

    #socialism#civil rights

  • Pedro

    1891–1965

    Albizu Campos, Puerto Rico

    ♂ Male

    Puerto Rican independence leader; Harvard lawyer who chose the nation over the empire.

    #anticolonial

  • Peter

    1842–1921

    Kropotkin, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Prince who renounced his title to write Mutual Aid.

    #anarchism#mutual aid

  • Philip

    1889–1979

    Randolph (A. Philip), USA

    ♂ Male

    Organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; pushed FDR on jobs.

    #labor#civil rights

  • Pierre-Joseph

    1809–1865

    Proudhon, France

    ♂ Male

    First to call himself an anarchist. 'Property is theft.'

    #anarchism

  • Pyotr

    1842–1921

    Kropotkin, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Russian spelling of Peter. Same mutual aid.

    #anarchism

  • Raya

    1910–1987

    Dunayevskaya, Ukraine/USA

    ♀ Female

    Translated Marx's 1844 Manuscripts; founded Marxist-Humanism.

    #marxism

  • Ricardo

    1874–1922

    Flores Magón, Mexico

    ♂ Male

    Anarchist who lit the fuse of the Mexican Revolution. Died in a US prison.

    #anarchism

  • Rosa

    1871–1919

    Luxemburg, Poland/Germany

    ♀ Female

    Marxist theorist; murdered for refusing to abandon the workers' revolution.

    #marxism#revolution

  • Ruth

    b. 1950

    Wilson Gilmore, USA

    ♀ Female

    Abolition geographer; 'where life is precious, life is precious.'

    #abolition

  • Salvador

    1908–1973

    Allende, Chile

    ♂ Male

    Democratically elected socialist. Died defending La Moneda.

    #socialism

  • Samir

    1931–2018

    Amin, Egypt

    ♂ Male

    Economist of dependency and delinking from the imperial core.

    #marxism#anticolonial

  • Sandino

    1895–1934

    Sandino, Nicaragua

    ♂ Male

    Led guerrillas against US occupation. Assassinated under a flag of truce.

    #anticolonial

  • Sergei

    1898–1948

    Eisenstein, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Made montage a weapon. Battleship Potemkin still rolls.

    #culture#revolution

  • Silvia

    b. 1942

    Federici, Italy/USA

    ♀ Female

    Caliban and the Witch; Wages for Housework.

    #feminism#marxism

  • Simone

    1909–1943

    Weil, France

    ♀ Female

    Philosopher who worked the Renault line and fought in Spain.

    #theory#labor

  • Sojourner

    c.1797–1883

    Truth, USA

    ♀ Female

    Abolitionist and women's rights orator. 'Ain't I a woman?'

    #abolition#feminism

  • Stokely

    1941–1998

    Carmichael / Kwame Ture, Trinidad/USA

    ♂ Male

    Coined 'Black Power.' Later took the name Kwame Ture.

    #panafrican#black radicalism

  • Stuart

    1932–2014

    Hall, Jamaica/UK

    ♂ Male

    Founder of cultural studies; theorist of Thatcherism and race.

    #theory#cultural studies

  • Subcomandante

    active 1994–

    Marcos / Galeano, Mexico

    ♂ Male

    Mask, pipe, communiqués from the Lacandon Jungle.

    #zapatista

  • Tecumseh

    1768–1813

    Shawnee Confederacy

    ♂ Male

    Built a multinational Indigenous confederacy against settler expansion.

    #indigenous#anticolonial

  • Thomas

    1949–1987

    Sankara, Burkina Faso

    ♂ Male

    Renamed Upper Volta to 'Land of Upright People.' Assassinated for it.

    #anticolonial#marxism

  • Tito

    1892–1980

    Broz, Yugoslavia

    ♂ Male

    Led Yugoslav Partisans against Nazis; built socialism outside Moscow's orbit.

    #antifascist#socialism

  • Toussaint

    1743–1803

    Louverture, Haiti

    ♂ Male

    Led the only successful slave revolution in modern history.

    #revolution#abolition

  • Trotsky

    1879–1940

    Bronstein, Russia

    ♂ Male

    Organized the Red Army; killed in Mexico by Stalin's ice axe.

    #marxism#revolution

  • Ursula

    1929–2018

    Le Guin, USA

    ♀ Female

    'We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable—so did the divine right of kings.'

    #literature#anarchism

  • Vandana

    b. 1952

    Shiva, India

    ♀ Female

    Physicist turned seed-sovereignty organizer against agribusiness.

    #ecology#anticolonial

  • Víctor

    1932–1973

    Jara, Chile

    ♂ Male

    Folk singer; hands broken, then shot in the stadium that now bears his name.

    #music

  • Vladimir

    1870–1924

    Lenin (Ulyanov), Russia

    ♂ Male

    Led the October Revolution. Wrote a lot of pamphlets very fast.

    #bolshevik#revolution

  • Voltairine

    1866–1912

    de Cleyre, USA

    ♀ Female

    American anarchist and poet of mutiny.

    #anarchism#feminism

  • W.E.B.

    1868–1963

    Du Bois, USA

    ♂ Male

    Sociologist, socialist, Pan-Africanist. Died a citizen of Ghana.

    #socialism#panafrican

  • Walter

    1892–1940

    Benjamin, Germany

    ♂ Male

    Wrote on history's angel. Took his own life fleeing the Gestapo.

    #theory#marxism

  • Walter

    1942–1980

    Rodney, Guyana

    ♂ Male

    Wrote How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Killed by a car bomb at 38.

    #panafrican#marxism

  • William

    1834–1896

    Morris, UK

    ♂ Male

    Designer-socialist who wanted beauty for everyone or no one.

    #socialism#arts

  • Winifred

    1936–2018

    Mandela (Winnie), South Africa

    ♀ Female

    Mother of the nation. Fought when Nelson was caged.

    #anti-apartheid

  • Yuri

    1921–2014

    Kochiyama, USA

    ♀ Female

    Japanese-American radical; held Malcolm X as he died.

    #asian american#black radicalism

  • Zhou

    1898–1976

    Enlai, China

    ♂ Male

    Premier of the People's Republic; diplomat of the Long March generation.

    #communism#revolution