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Famous First Names

This is our A to Z of famous first names. For each name there is a short description about the person with that first name.

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Here is a random selection of famous first names.

Stanley Matthews

[Sir], (1915 - 2000), English footballer. He is regarded as being one of the greatest wingers of all time and had the nickname the 'Wizard of Dribble'. Sir Stanley won 54 international caps in a playing career that lasted from 1932 to 1965.

Richard Burton

[real name Richard Jenkins], (1925 - 84), Welsh actor. He played many roles in the theatre and in films. His films include 'Cleopatra', 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and 'The Medussa Touch'.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

(1835 - 1910), American writer and humorist. Used the name Mark Twain when writing his books. He wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Henry Purcell

(c. 1659 - 95), English composer. His works include incidental music for the theatre, songs, church music and operas, He wrote the opera "Dido and Aeneas" and plays "King Arthur" and "The Fairy Queen".

Samuel Barber

(1910 - 81), American composer. He wrote classical music and operas. His works include the opera 'Vanessa', and the 'Concerto for Piano and Orchestra' and 'Adagio for Strings'.

John Bardeen

(1908 - 91), American physicist and electrical engineer. He won a Nobel prize in 1956 for research that led to the invention of the transistor. In 1972 he was awarded a second Nobel prize for research into the theory of superconductivity.

William Thomas Cosgrave

(1880 - 1965), Irish nationalist politician. In 1922 he became the first president of the Irish Free State.

Jerome David Kern

(1885 - 1945), American composer and songwriter. He wrote over 700 songs including "Ol' Man River", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "All the Things You Are".

Jean Cocteau

(1889 - 1963) French film director, novelist, dramatist, poet and critic. He wrote the novel 'Les Enfants Terribles' (1929).

Frank Sinatra

[Francis Albert Sinatra], (1915 - 1998), American singer and movie actor. Frnk Sinatra had many hit songs including "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way". He apperared in the movie "From Here to Eternity", and starred in the musicals "High Society", "Guys and Dolls" and "On the Town".