What’s in a Name?

For gunfighters, it helped to have a catchy moniker.

Having a catchy “gunfighter” name was almost a sure way to immortality. Henry McCarty might never have become famous as “Henry the Kid.” Nor would James Butler Hickok have done as well with a name like “Wild James.” Arguably, the greatest gunfighter name of them all has to be Johnny Ringo—which was his real name. He also might have been the most overrated gunfighter in the West; he certainly was not the fastest or the best by any stretch.