My favourite one was from a while ago when I despatched that notorious pirate 'Mrs Trellis of North Wales
More recently I bumped into Isaac Newton flying an Orca. Other famous real or fictional characters I've seen. Icarus, Spartacus, Topcat, Macbeth, Grommitt (I haven't seen Wallsce yet), Roger Leclerc ( the forger from Allo, Allo), Kirk, Iain Norman (forum mod so maybe not famous outside these forums), Elvis, Twilight Sparkles and Michael Gove. In the 1.5 beta I've seen Dawn French and Mic Turner (famous ship designer from earlier Elite games)
Funny ones include Egg Whisk, Mint Sauce, Burns Toast, Copper Hamster, Naughty-Madbad, Dr Thadius Strangepants, King Bumpy Tim the third and Evil Overlord Zmurf.