List of prostitutes and courtesans

Historical

Ancient world

• Aspasia, Greek hetaera, companion of Pericles
• Phryne, Greek hetaera
• Thaïs, Greek hetaera who lived during the time of Alexander the Great
• Theodora (6th century), empress of Byzantium

Early Modern era

• Imperia Cognati, the "first courtesan" in Europe
• Isabella de Luna, Italian courtesan of Renaissance-era Rome.
• Hwang Jini, the most famous Korean gisaeng
• Veronica Franco, Venetian courtesan and poet
• Nell Gwyn, courtesan to Charles II of England
• Chica da Silva, famous eighteenth-century slave courtesan in Brazil, subject of the movie Xica
• Madame du Barry, mistress to Louis XV of France

19th century

• Laura Bell, the "Queen of London whoredom"
• Theresa Berkeley, dominatrix
• Jeanne Brécourt, born 1837, one of France's most notorious courtesans
• Julia Bulette, American prostitute in Virginia City, Nevada
• Annie Chapman, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Emma Dupont, French courtesan and artist's model
• Josephine Earp, common-law wife of Wyatt Earp
• Mary Jane Kelly, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Lizzie Lape, mid-Ohio madam, operator of multiple bordellos, 1880s-1900s
• Mary Ann Nichols, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Sai Jinhua, Chinese famous prostitute and brothel madam
• Elizabeth Stride, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Martha Tabram, a possible victim of Jack the Ripper
• Libby Thompson, "Squirrel Tooth Alice," madam of a brothel in Sweetwater, Texas

20th century

• Elizabeth Adams,, also known as Madam Alex, Hollywood madam
• Polly Adler, New York madam, 1920s to 1940s
• Josie Arlington, madam in Storyville, New Orleans
• Kimberly Daniels, former sex worker and drug addict who became a prolific author, religious minister and member of the Florida House of Representatives; introduced successful legislation to put "In God We Trust" in Florida school classrooms
• Anette Dawn, Hungarian make-up artist, ceramist and professional sex worker
• Zahia Dehar, Algerian-French fashion and lingerie designer and model
• Virginie Despentes, french writer known for her work exploring gender, sexuality and poverty.
• Carolin Ebert, a.k.a. Sexy Cora, German former prostitute, pornographic actress and reality show participant
• Heidi Fleiss, a.k.a. the "Hollywood Madam", ran an upscale prostitution ring based in Los Angeles during the 1990s
• Suzy Favor Hamilton, middle-distance runner in three Olympic Games, the subject of intense publicity when her activities as an escort became public
• Mata Hari, Dutch spy
• Gangubai Harjeevandas, a prostitute, an Indian social activist and madam of a brothel in the Kamathipura area of Mumbai during the 1960s
• Xaviera Hollander, author of the memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story
• La Macorina, Cuban courtesan, 1910s to 1930s
• Carol Leigh, a.k.a. Scarlot Harlot, coined the term "sex worker"
• Molly Luft, German prostitute, brothel owner and television personality
• Brooke Magnanti, blogger and scientist who wrote as Belle de Jour and was the inspiration for Billie Piper's character in Secret Diary of a Call Girl
• Domenica Niehoff, German prostitute, dominatrix, sex worker rights activist and television personality
• María de la Caridad Norberta Pacheco Sánchez, a.k.a. Caridad la Negra, Spanish prostitute and madam, early to mid-20th century
• Barbara Payton, American actress turned prostitute
• Charlotte Rose, an English sex worker, dominatrix, sexual trainer and political candidate
• Liara Roux, American prostitute, sex worker rights activist and author in New York
• Deanne Salinger, aka Air Force Amy, a legal prostitute in Nevada, pornographic actress, and adult model, who starred in the HBO television documentary series Cathouse: The Series. MSNBC has called her "a living legend in the world of sex."
• Margo St. James, activist and sex worker
• Ellen F. Steinberg, a.k.a. Annie Sprinkle, American former sex worker, porn star, and sex educator and writer
• Valérie Tasso, French author
• Estella Marie Thompson, also known as Divine Brown, an American and former prostitute who gained public attention in 1995 when actor Hugh Grant was caught receiving oral sex from her in his car
• Andressa Urach, also known as Ímola, Brazilian former sex worker
• Sheila Vogel-Coupe, at 85+ the oldest prostitute in the United Kingdom and, possibly, the world
• Clara Ward, Princesse de Caraman-Chimay, daughter of a Michigan lumberman who spent most of her life in Europe
• Lulu White, madam in Storyville, New Orleans

Biblical figures

• Gomer, a prostitute whom God commanded Hosea to marry in the biblical Book of Hosea
• Mary Magdalene was supposed to have been a prostitute by those who identified her with the sinful woman in, an identification now generally abandoned
• Rahab of Jericho

Fictional characters

In literature

• Angel/Sarah, Lucky, & Mai Ling, in Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
• Bella Cohen, Florry, & Zoe, in Ulysses by James Joyce
• Belle, Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O'Neill
• Belle Watling, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Betsi, a female Whiphid, Star Wars: X-wing (book series) by Michael A. Stackpole.
• Candy, in Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction by Luke Davies
• Candy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
• Chandramukhi, in Devdas by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
• Eccentrica Gallumbits, "The Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon Six" in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Elisabeth Rouset, in "Boule de Suif", a short story by Guy de Maupassant
• Fanny Hill, in Fanny Hill by John Cleland
• Fantine, in Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
• Marguerite Gautier, from Alexandre Dumas, fils' work La Dame aux camélias, inspired by real life 19th-century courtesan Marie Duplessis,
• Jenny Smith, in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and The Threepenny Opera
• Juliette, in the Marquis de Sade's Juliette
• Kamala, in Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• Lady Sally, in Callahan's Lady by Spider Robinson
• Lozana, Portrait of Lozana by Francisco Delicado
• Lulu, in Frank Wedekind's plays and Alban Berg's opera of the same name
• Mamie Stover, The Revolt of Mamie Stover by William Bradford Huie
• Manon Lescaut
• Mistress Overdone, manager of a bordello in Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
• Moll Flanders, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
• Molly Malone, Irish urban legend
• Mother Goose, in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
• Nana, Nana, by Émile Zola
• Nancy, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Odette, in Marcel Proust's Un amour de Swann
• Phedre no Delauny of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel novels
• Pie 'Oh' Pah, from Imajica by Clive Barker
• Romulus, central character in The Romanian: Story of an Obsession by Bruce Benderson
• Mrs. Rosie Palm, brothel owner and president of the Guild of "Seamstresses" in various Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
• Satine, in Moulin Rouge! by Baz Luhrmann, a story based on the Paris nightclub of the same name
• Séverine Serizy, in the 1928 novel Belle de Jour and the 1967 film based on it
• Sonya Marmeladova, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Suzie Wong, from The World of Suzie Wong by Richard Mason
• Talanta, La Talanta by Pietro Aretino
• Thúy Kiều, The Tale of Kieu by Nguyễn Du
• Tra La La, Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby
• Tristessa, Tristessa by Jack Kerouac
• Vasantsenaa, a Nagarvadhu, or wealthy courtesan, in Śudraka's Sanskrit play Mṛcchakatika
• Violetta, main character from the opera La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, is also inspired by Alexandre Dumas' La Dame aux camélias. "La Traviata" means "the reprobate".
• Yumi Komagata, in Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki
• Zaza, in Zaza by Pierre Berton and
• Du Shiniang,a courtesan or high class prostitute,in "Du Shiniang Sinks the Treasure Box in Anger" by China's Ming Dynasty Feng Menglong

In film, television, and musical theater

• Belle the Sleeping Car, train in Starlight Express by Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Christine/Chelsea, central character in The Girlfriend Experience
• Inara Serra, Firefly by Joss Whedon
• Ai Nu in Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan by Chor Yuen
• Bree Daniels in Klute by Alan J. Pakula
• Cabiria in Nights of Cabiria by Federico Fellini
• Chandramukhi in [Devdas (1955 film)|Devdas] by Bimal Roy and Devdas by Sanjay Leela Bhansali respectively ; from novella by Saratchandra Chatterjee
• Chiyo Sakamoto in Memoirs of a Geisha by Rob Marshall ; from novel by Arthur Golden
• Claire Reine / Garance in Children of Paradise by Marcel Carné
• Constance Miller in McCabe & Mrs. Miller by Robert Altman ; from novel by Edmund Naughton
• Doris in The [Owl and the Pussycat (film)|The Owl and the Pussycat] by Herbert Ross ; from play by Bill Manhoff
• Eréndira in Eréndira by Ruy Guerra ; from novel by Gabriel García Márquez
• Fanny Hill in Fanny Hill by Russ Meyer ; from novel by John Cleland
• Fleur in Rouge by Stanley Kwan ; from novel by Lilian Lee
• Gigi in Gigi by Vincente Minnelli ; from novella by Colette
• Gloria Wandrous in BUtterfield 8 by Daniel Mann ; from novel by John O'Hara
• Hattie in Pretty Baby by Louis Malle
• Ilya in Never on Sunday by Jules Dassin
• Iris in Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese
• Irma La Douce in Irma la Douce by Billy Wilder ; from play by Alexandre Breffort
• Isabelle in Young & Beautiful by François Ozon
• Juxian, prostitute at an upscale brothel before marrying Duan Xiaolou in the book and film Farewell My Concubine
• Jade Ink, prostitute in a brothel on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, in the 2011 Chinese film The Flowers of War, directed by Zhang Yimou, adapted from the novel 13 Flowers of Nanjing by Geling Yan
• Jade Ink, in the 2014 Chinese TV drama Si Shi Jiu Ri Ji, directed by Zhang Li, also adapted from the novel by Geling Yan
• Liz in Whore by Ken Russell ; from play by David Hines
• Lorena Wood in Lonesome Dove by Simon Wincer ; from novel by Larry McMurtry
• Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential by Curtis Hanson ; from novel by James Ellroy
• Marguerite Gautier in Camille by George Cukor ; from novel & play by Alexandre Dumas
• Maya in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love by Mira Nair
• Nana in Nana by Jean Renoir ; from novel by Émile Zola
• Ophelia in the comedy film Trading Places
• Otsuya in Irezumi by Yasuzō Masumura ; from novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
• Sahibjaan in Pakeezah by Kamal Amrohi
• Satine in Moulin Rouge! by Baz Luhrmann
• Satsu Sakamoto, sister of Chiyo, who was not allowed to join the Geisha house and ended up in a brothel, instead. From the book and movie Memoirs of a Geisha.
• Seol-ji in The Accidental Gangster and the Mistaken Courtesan by Yeo Kyun-dong
• Séverine Serizy in Belle de Jour by Luis Buñuel ; from novel by Joseph Kessel
• Suzie Wong in The [World of Suzie Wong (film)|The World of Suzie Wong] by Richard Quine ; from novel by Richard Mason
• Tereza Batista in Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars by Paulo Afonso Grisolli ; from novel by Jorge Amado
• Umrao Jaan in Umrao Jaan by Muzaffar Ali ; from novel by Mirza Haadi Ruswa
• Umrao Jaan in Umrao Jaan by J.P. Dutta ; from novel by Mirza Haadi Ruswa
• Veronica Franco in Dangerous Beauty by Marshall Herskovitz ; from biography by Margaret Rosenthal
• Violet in Pretty Baby by Louis Malle
• Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman by Garry Marshall
• Zoe in Killing Zoe by Roger Avary
• Huang Cuifeng, a Sing-song girl by Flowers of Shanghai,from novel The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai by Han Bangqing
• Blanche Simmons, Dorothy Bennett and Maggie Thorpe in Tenko are all to some degree prostitutes. Maggie is intended to be a replacement for Blanche as by the 3rd series of Tenko, Blanche dies offscreen as a result of beri-beri.

Symbolic or allegorical prostitutes

• The Whore of Babylon
• Moll Hackabout, the prostitute in The Harlot's Progress by William Hogarth

In myth and legend

• Agatha - English prostitute, mother of Mother Shipton
• Basileia - in Pandemos, this goddess was mainly a goddess for prostitutes or courtesans
• Bebhinn - the goddess of pleasure
• Naamah - an angel of prostitution, one of the succubus mates of the demon Samael in Zoharistic Qabalah
• Rahab, Biblical prostitute who assisted the Hebrews in capturing Jericho
• Shamhat
• Xochiquetzal - the goddess of prostitutes, pregnant women, and dancing
• Alexandra Dé Broussehan - a woman turned spirit of prostitution, caused a war between the Callahan and Lawlor clans, and often associated with Korrigan whose worship involved sacred prostitution