Given a class: class Foo(object): pass How can I get the name "Foo" without having an instance of the class? str(Foo) gives me more than just the name Foo. "__main__.Account" Foo.__class__.__name__ gives me "type" I don't want to do: Foo().__class__.__name__ if possible. I would rather avoid the constructor. I just want to get a string "Foo"