Theodore Brentano was an American attorney and judge and the first U.S. ambassador to Hungary. He was appointed to the position by Warren G. Harding.

Lorenzo Brentano was a German revolutionary and journalist who served as President of the Free State of Baden during the 1849 Baden Revolution. Following the failure of the revolutions, he and many other intellectuals and leaders fled to the United States, where he became editor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung and eventually served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois.