List of famous prostitutes and courtesans - Definition

This is a list of famous prostitutes and courtesans:

Real-life and historical

• Brenda Allen, 1940s Los Angeles madam
• Aspasia, hetaera companion of Pericles
• Laura Bell, the "Queen of London whoredom"
• Theresa Berkeley, 19th-century dominatrix
• Divine Brown, caught in a compromising situation with Hugh Grant
• Sydney Biddle Barrows, the Mayflower Madam
• Annie Chapman, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Claudia Drexelius, German prostitute exposed through national TV
• Heidi Fleiss, the Hollywood Madam
• Nell Gwynne, courtesan to Charles II of England
• Janie Jones, entertainer and madam
• Christine Keeler, involved in the Profumo Affair
• Mary Jane Kelly, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Margaret MacDonald
• Madame Alex, the Beverly Hills Madam
• Madame Claude
• Draga Masin, prostitute turned Queen of Serbia
• Mata Hari (born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle)
• Gerda Munsinger, Soviet spy
• Mary Ann Nichols, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Cynthia Payne
• Cora Pearl
• Phryne, Greek hetaera
• Victoria Price, alleged victim, perjurer in the Scottsboro Boys case
• Rahab, Biblical prostitute who assisted the Hebrews in capturing Jericho
• Valerie Solanas, street prostitute turned attempted assassin
• Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sid Vicious, murder victim
• Elizabeth Stride, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• Martha Tabram, a possible victim of Jack the Ripper
• Sunset Thomas, porn star
• Tamar (Bible, Genesis 38) posed as a prostitute
• Thais, Greek hetaera who lived during the time of Alexander the Great
• Saint Thais, repentant Egyptian courtesan
• Theodora, Empress of Byzantium

Fictional

• Belle Watling, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Fanny Hill, Fanny Hill by John Cleland
• Holly Golightly, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (more of a kept woman than a prostitute proper)
• Nana, Nana by Emile Zola
• Juliette, in the Marquis de Sade's "Juliette"
• Tra La La, Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby
• Tamara Sperling in Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough For Love.
• Sonya Marmeladova, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Mrs Rosemary Palm, head of the Guild of Seamstresses in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels
• Tilt, from The Monolith
• Tristessa, Tristessa by Jack Kerouac

See also Hooker with a heart of gold.

Alleged prostitutes

• Catherine Eddowes, one of the "canonical five" victims of Jack the Ripper
• La Malinche
• Mary Magdalene
• Yoko Ono - according to Albert Goldman's book The Lives of John Lennon
• Belle de jour (author) - an anonymous British author who claims to be a high-class call girl

Symbolic or allegorical prostitutes

• The Whore of Babylon
• Oholah and Oholibah
• The prostitute in The Harlot's Progress by William Hogarth