The names Dodie, Dody, and Dodi are most familiar to us as nicknames for Dorothy (or Dolores).
But in 1997, Dodi popped up in the U.S. baby name data as a boy name for the first and only time:
- 1999: unlisted
- 1998: unlisted
- 1997: 5 baby boys named Dodi [debut]
- 1996: unlisted
- 1995: unlisted
Why?
Because 1997 was the year that Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed died in a high-speed car crash in Paris. The crash happened on August 31 — almost exactly a year after Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles was finalized.
Diana and Dodi had only been together since July, but their romance quickly became the top tabloid story of the summer. CNN said on August 11 that their relationship “[was] just a few weeks old, but Monday’s headlines on Britain’s royalty-obsessed tabloids practically had them married.”
Wealthy playboy Dodi, whose full name was Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed, was the son of an Egyptian billionaire. Before Diana, he had been linked to a string famous women including Brooke Shields, Tawny Kitaen, and Tina Sinatra.
Source: “As tabloids tell it, Diana practically married.” CNN 11 Aug. 1997.
Image: © 1997 People