| Captain | Ahab | Captain of the Pequod. |
| Ulisse | Aldrovandi | An Italian naturalist. |
| Herr | Alexander | Performed as a professional magician in Germany. |
| Peter | Artedi | Swedish naturalist. |
| Flavius | Balisarius | A military commander of the Byzantine Empire. |
| Dr. Peter | Beale | A pediatric surgeon. |
| Emil von | Behring | A German physiologist. |
| Tony | Bennett | American singer. |
| Jeremy | Bentham | British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer. |
| Captain | Bildad | A whaleman. Owns a large share of the Pequod. |
| Louis | Blanc | French politician and historian. |
| Napoleon | Bonafarte | A French general and emperor. |
| Captain | Boomer | The jovial captain of the English whaling ship. |
| Daniel | Boone | An American settler. |
| Nathaniel | Bowditch | An early American mathematician worked on ocean navigation. |
| Mathurin J. | Brisson | French zoologist and natural philosopher. |
| John Ross | Browne | Irish-American writer. |
| Sir Thomas | Browne | An English polymath and author. |
| Dr. Jack | Bunger | The ship surgeon. |
| John | Bunyan | An English writer. |
| Edmund | Burke | Irish statesman. |
| Wilhelm | Canaris | A German admiral, head of military intelligence service. |
| Kit | Carson | American frontiersman and Union Army general. |
| Benvenuto | Cellini | An Italian goldsmith. |
| Jean-François | Champollion | A French classical scholar. |
| Ray | Charles | American singer-songwriter. |
| Rev. Thomas | Cheever | A preacher. |
| Charles | Coffin | An American journalist. |
| Peter | Coffin | The inkeeper who unites Ishmael and Queequeg. |
| Nathan | Coleman | A surgeon. |
| Samuel Taylor | Coleridge | A British poet, literary critic and philosopher. |
| James | Colnett | A British Royal Navy officer, an explorer, and maritime fur trader. |
| Thomas C. | Constable | A British landowner and Member of the Parliament. |
| Dante Bonfim | Costa Santos | A Brazillian professional footballer. |
| William | Cowper | English poet and hymnodist. |
| John G. | Creagh | A judge of county orphans court and state legislator. |
| Frederic | Cuvier | French paleontologist. |
| George | Cuvier | A French naturalist and zoologist. |
| Nathan | Daboll | An American teacher who wrote a mathematics textbook. |
| Charles Willis | Davis | A US Army officer and a Medal of Honor recipient. |
| Miguel | de Cervantes | A Spanish writer. |
| Derick de | Deer | A German whaling captain. |
| Henry | Desmarest | French composer. |
| Bartolomeu | Dias | A Portuguese explorer. |
| Moby | Dick | The white whale. |
| Henry Marion | Durand | A British military officer in the Bengal Army. |
| Albrecht | Durer | A German painter, printmaker. |
| Johann Peter Eckermann | Eckermann | German poet and author. |
| Lord | Ellenborough | Replaced Auckland as Governor General of India. |
| Samuel | Enderby | An English whale oil merchant. aka: Sammy. |
| Mr. | Erskine | A counsel. |
| Juan | Fernandes | A Dominican actor. |
| Clemente | Figuera | A Spanish Forrest engineer. |
| Mary | Folger | One of the old settlers of Nantucket. |
| Benjamin | Franklin | One of the Founding Fathers of the United States. |
| Sir Martin | Frobisher | An English seaman anf privateer. |
| Captain | Gardiner | A ship captain. |
| Ambroise | Garneray | A French corsair, painter and writer. |
| Conrad | Gessner | A Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer and philologist. |
| Richard | Hackluyt | An English writer. |
| Pussie | Hall | An English ship. |
| William | Hogarth | The first great English-born artist. |
| Mr. | Humpback | A large bull alligaror. |
| John | Hunter | A Scottish surgeon. |
| Hosea | Hussey | Cousin of the Sprouter-Inn's landlord. |
| Mrs. | Hussey | Hosea's wife. |
| Andrew | Jackson | 7th U.S. President. |
| John | Jebb | An Irish churchman and writer. |
| Samuel | Johnson | An English writer known as Dr. Johnson. |
| Davy | Jones | A singer and actor. |
| William | Jones | An Anglo-Welsh philologist. |
| Bernard | Lacepede | French naturalist. |
| Hans | Langsdorff | A German naval officer. |
| Antonie van | Leeuwenhoek | A Dutch tradesman and scientist. |
| John | Leo | An American journalist. |
| Carl | Linnaeus | Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist and physician. |
| Robert | Long | American serial killer and rapist. |
| Obed | Macy | The sole historian of Nantucket. |
| Father | Mapple | A former whaleman who became a preacher. |
| Matthew F. | Maury | Served as the first Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory. |
| Philip | Melanchthon | A German reformer. |
| Alvaro de | Mendaña | A Spanish navigator and discoverer. |
| Mary | Morrel | Benjamin Franklin's grandmother. |
| Mr. | Mounttop | Boat owner. |
| Tom | Murray | A New Zealand rower. |
| Horatio | Nelson | British Royal Navy Admiral. |
| Frederick | Olmsted | American landscape architect and journalist. |
| Robert | Owen | Welsh philantropist. |
| Mungo | Park | A Scottish explorer. |
| Peter G. | Peterson | The former chairman and co-founder of the Blackstone Group. |
| Ptolemy IV | Philopator | A Macedonian king of Egypt. |
| Francisco | Pizarro | A Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire. |
| Captain | Pollard | A Seneca leader. |
| William | Prynne | An English lawyer, author, polemicist, and political figure. |
| Samuel | Purchas | An English author. |
| François | Rabelais | A French writer. |
| Guillaume | Rondelet | Regius professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier. |
| Jean-Jacques | Rousseau | A Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. |
| Don Miguel | Ruiz | Mexican writer and philosopher. |
| Dan | Sartain | An American musician. |
| William | Scoresby | An English whaler, Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. |
| Don Louis | Sebastian | A professional wrestler, a wrestling promoter. |
| Wiliam | Shakespeare | An English playwright and poet. |
| Robert | Sibbald | Scottish physician and antiquary. |
| Sir Robert | Sibbald | A Scottish physician and antiquarian. |
| Dr. | Snodhead | A professor of Low Dutch and High German. |
| Baruch | Spinoza | One of the most important philosophers. |
| Nathaniel | Swain | A scion of one of Nantucket's whaling families. |
| John | Talbot | 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. |
| Lucius | Tarquinius | The legendary seventh and final king of Rome. |
| Timor | Tom | A sperm whale from the 19th century. |
| Adam Johann | von Krusenstern | The First Russian Circumnavigator. |
| Lionel | Wafer | A Welsh explorer, buccaneer and privateer. |
| Lord | Warden | A ceremonial official in the United Kingdom. |
| George | Washington | 1st U.S. President. |
| James | Wolfe | A British Army officer. |
| Alexander the Great | | The king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. |
| Alfred the Great | | King of the Anglo-Saxons |
| Amelia | | A ship. |
| Andromeda | | The daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. |
| Annawon | | The headmost warrior of the Indian king. |
| Archy | | One of the cordons. |
| Arion | | A Kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet. |
| Aristotle | | A Greek philosopher. |
| Aunt Charity | | Captain Bildad's sister. |
| Belshazzar | | The last of the kings of Babylon. |
| Brahma | | A Hindu god of creation. |
| Cabaco | | A seaman. |
| Cambyses II | | The second king of the Achaemenid Empire. |
| Categut | | A whaleman. |
| Cholo | | Archy's neighbor. |
| Cleopatra | | Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, and its last active ruler. |
| Daggoo | | Flask's harpooneer. |
| Dagon | | The fowl idol of the Philistines. |
| Dame Isabella | | The eldest daughter of King Edward III of England. |
| Delight | | A ship. |
| Devil-dam | | One of the ships. |
| Dough-Boy | | A steward. |
| Edward VIII | | King of United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire. |
| Eliza | | A ship. |
| Elizabeth I | | Queen of England and Ireland. |
| Fedallah | | A supernaturally skilled hunter and served as a prophet to Ahab. |
| Flask | | The third mate of the Pequod. |
| Great Jove | | The king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mythology. |
| Harris | | Leading national mechanical contractor specializing in design. |
| Henry VII | | The King of England and Lord of Ireland. |
| Hercules | | A Greek god. |
| Ishmael | | The narrator and a junior member of the crew of the Pequod. |
| Jeroboam I | | The first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel. |
| Juba II | | The client King of Numidia and Mauretania. |
| Justinian I | | Reigned as emperor of the Byzantine Empire. |
| King Porus | | King of Paurava. |
| Louis Philippe I | | King of the French. |
| Louis XVI | | King of France. |
| Manxman | | An old hearse-driver. |
| Mary | | Starbuck's wife. |
| Mayhew | | Jeroboam's captain. |
| Mordecai | | A broker. |
| Nicholas II | | Former Emperor of the Russias. |
| Nimble | | A cat. |
| Peleg | | A whaleman. One of the principal owner of the Pequod. |
| Pequod | | A Nantucket whaling ship. |
| Perseus | | A Legendary Greek hero and founder of Mycenae. |
| Peter the Great | | Former emperor of all the Russians. |
| Pharaoh | | An ancient Egyptian rulers. |
| Phidias | | A Greek sculptor, painter and architect. |
| Pip | | Pequod's cabin boy. |
| Plato | | Ancient Greek philosopher. |
| Pliny the Elder | | A Roman author, Naturalist and natural philosopher. |
| Pompey | | A Roman general. |
| Procopius | | The last of the great classical Greek historians. |
| Pyrrho | | Greek philosopher and founder of Pyrrhonism. |
| Pythagoras | | Greek philosopher made important developments in Mathematics. |
| Queen Anne | | Queen of England, queen of Scotland and queen of Ireland. |
| Queequeg | | Ishmael's best friend. |
| Rachel | | A large ship. |
| Radney | | A lakeman. |
| Richard III | | King of England and Lord of Ireland. |
| Saladin | | The first sultan of Egypt and Syria. Founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. |
| Solomon | | King of Israel and son of David. |
| Starbuck | | The first mate of the Pequod. |
| Stubb | | The second mate of the Pequod. |
| Tamerlane | | One of history's greatest military leaders and strategists. |
| Tanaquil | | Tarquis' wife. |
| Tashtego | | A Gayhead Indian from Martha's Vineyard. |
| Thorkill-Hake | | A warrior. |
| Tistig | | An old squaw. |
| Tit-bit | | One of the ships. |
| Tranquo | | The king of Tranque. |
| Vishnu | | One of the most important gods in the Hindu pantheon. |
| Woebegone | | A bankrupt on a loan to keep his family from starvaton. |
| Xerxes I | | An Ancient Persian king. |
| Yojo | | The name of Queequeg's black little god. |
| Zogranda | | One of their most famous doctors, recommends for infants. |
