(Mental Floss) -- It's hard to walk down the aisle of a liquor store without running across a bottle bearing someone's name. 

A costumed reveler at a Captain Morgan party celebrates the rum named after the 17th century privateer. 

We put them in our cocktails, but how well do we know them? 

Here's some biographical detail on the men behind your favorite tipples: 

1. Captain Morgan 

The Captain wasn't always just the choice of sorority girls looking to blend spiced rum with Diet Coke; in the 17th century he was a feared privateer. 

Not only did the Welsh pirate marry his own cousin, he ran risky missions for the governor of Jamaica, including capturing some Spanish prisoners in Cuba and sacking Port-au-Prince in Haiti. 

He then plundered the Cuban coast before holding for ransom the entire city of Portobelo, Panama. 

He later looted and burned Panama City, but his pillaging career came to an end when Spain and England signed a peace treaty in 1671. 

Instead of getting in trouble for his high-seas antics, Morgan received knighthood and became the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. Mental Floss: 5 drinking stories that put yours to shame 

2. Johnnie Walker 

Walker, the name behind the world's most popular brand of Scotch whisky, was born in 1805 in Ayrshire, Scotland. 

When his father died in 1819, Johnnie inherited a trust of a little over 400 pounds, which the trustees invested in a grocery store. 

Walker became a very successful grocer in the town of Kilmarnock and even sold a whisky, Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky. 
Who is Captain Morgan's rum named after?
Captain Morgan party celebrates the rum named after the 17th century privateer. 