How popular is the baby name Tootie in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Tootie.

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Popularity of the baby name Tootie


Posts that mention the name Tootie

Interesting one-hit wonder names in the U.S. baby name data

single flower

They came, they went, and they never came back!

These baby names are one-hit wonders in the U.S. baby name data. That is, they’ve only popped up once, ever, in the entire dataset of U.S. baby names (which accounts for all names given to at least 5 U.S. babies per year since 1880).

There are thousands of one-hit wonders in the dataset, but the names below have interesting stories behind their single appearance, so these are the one-hits I’m writing specific posts about. Just click on a name to read more.

2020s

  • 2020: Jexi

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s

1910s

1900s

  • (none yet)

1890s

As I discover (and write about) more one-hit wonders in the data, I’ll add the names/links to this page. In the meanwhile, do you have any favorite one-hit wonder baby names?

Image: Adapted from Solitary Poppy by Andy Beecroft under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]

Where did the baby name Tootie come from in 1958?

Dorothea "Tootie" Stevens holding a letter from North Pole (1958)
Dorothea “Tootie” Stevens

Long before the character Tootie from the ’80s TV series The Facts of Life, the baby name name Tootie appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the first and only time, in 1958:

  • 1960: unlisted
  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: 5 baby girls named Tootie [debut]
  • 1957: unlisted
  • 1956: unlisted

What gave the usage of Tootie a boost that year?

Possibly nothing. “Tootie” is a diminutive of Dorothy, which, though declining in popularity during that period, was still being given to thousands of baby girls per year. So Tootie may have emerged in the data naturally.

That said, if there is a reason, it could be 13-year-old Dorothea “Tootie” Stevens of Washington, D.C., whose picture ran in some newspapers in August of 1958. (I couldn’t find a non-watermarked copy, unfortunately.)

Why was her picture in the papers?

Because she’d just received a letter “from the top of the world.” The letter came from U.S. Navy Commander Richard F. Dobbins, a family friend who, at that time, was serving as the medical officer aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus, which had just made the very first undersea transit of the Arctic ice cap.

What do you think of the name Tootie — does it work on its own, or is it better as a nickname?

Source: SSA