How popular is the baby name Dewey 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 Dewey.

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Popularity of the baby name Dewey


Posts that mention the name Dewey

The trendiest baby names of all time?

I’m no stats whiz, but Nathan Yau of FlowingData and David Taylor of Prooffreader are, and each has taken a stab at determining/ranking the trendiest baby names of all time in the U.S.

The FlowingData list of trendiest baby names was published last year. Nathan analyzed girl names and boy names separately. Here are his top 5 for each gender:

Trendiest Girl NamesTrendiest Boy Names
1. Catina
2. Deneen
3. Aaliyah
4. Allisson
5. Katina		1. Jalen
2. Tevin
3. Elian
4. Demond
5. Mcarthur

The Prooffreader list of trendiest baby names was published earlier this month. David analyzed all the names together (his overall top 100 was 80% girl names, 20% boy names). Here are his top 5 for each gender (with placement on the original list in parentheses):

Trendiest Girl NamesTrendiest Boy Names
1. Linda (#1)
2. Brittany (#3)
3. Debra (#4)
4. Shirley (#5)
5. Ashley (#6)		1. Dewey (#2)
2. Jason (#11)
3. Grover (#15)
4. Mark (#20)
5. Woodrow (#30)

Click through and check out their full lists. Then come back and tell me which list/methodology you prefer, and why.

Interesting baby name analysis

I only recently noticed that Behind the Name, one of my favorite websites for baby name definitions, has a page called United States Popularity Analysis — a “computer-created analysis of the United States top 1000 names for the period 1880 to 2012.”

The page has some interesting top ten lists. Here are three of them:

Most Volatile

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Elvis
2. Brooks
3. Santiago
4. Lincoln
5. Ernie
6. Wyatt
7. Quincy
8. Rogers
9. Alec
10. Dexter		1. Juliet
2. Lea
3. Justine
4. Martina
5. Felicia
6. Delilah
7. Selina
8. Lonnie
9. Magdalena
10. Katy

Biggest Recoveries

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Silas
2. Isaiah
3. Caleb
4. Emmett
5. Jordan
6. Josiah
7. Harrison
8. Ezra
9. Jason
10. Jesus		1. Ella
2. Stella
3. Sadie
4. Sophie
5. Isabella
6. Lily
7. Hannah
8. Isabelle
9. Sophia
10. Lilly

Biggest Flash-in-the-Pans

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Dewey
2. Woodrow
3. Dale
4. Barry
5. Rick
6. Greg
7. Roosevelt
8. Shannon
9. Kim
10. Darrin		1. Debra
2. Lori
3. Tammy
4. Pamela
5. Tracy
6. Cheryl
7. Beverly
8. Dawn
9. Diane
10. Kathy

I wonder what the formulas were. I’d love to try the same analysis on the SSA’s full list, using raw numbers instead of rankings. Wonder how much overlap there’d be…

Road trip names: Uneeda, Askew, Bovina

Last week we went on a road trip, mainly to Minnesota and Missouri. Here are some names I spotted while we were out and about:

Ole & Lena

At the Mall of America, I noticed a display of “Ole and Lena” branded items — joke books, mugs, jams, jellies, even fortune cookies. Apparently the characters Ole and Lena are well-known in the Upper Midwest, where there are a number of Scandinavian-Americans.

Ole is a short form of Olaf.

Lena is short form of Helena, Magdalena, and other names that end with -lena.

Dewey

In Kansas City, we toured the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Federal Reserve Bank, Kansas City
Federal Reserve Bank, Kansas City

We saw the huge cash vault, and the three robots that carry large containers of cash into and out of storage.

I noticed that robot #2 was named Dewey. That made me think of George Dewey, so I told my husband, “I bet all three names have some sort of military connection. Maybe they’re all named after naval commanders, or war heroes.”

And then we saw car #1, Huey. Then car #3, Louie.

He laughed at me.

Not war heroes. Just Disney. Figures.

Uneeda

Also at the money museum, we watched a short movie about how Kansas City fought to be chosen as one of the nation’s Federal Reserve cities back in early 1914.

The movie featured a lot of old black-and-white photographs, one of which was a building with “Uneeda Biscuit 5¢” painted on the side.

That reminded me about the baby name Uneeda, which has popped up in the U.S. baby name data a handful of times:

  • …
  • 1968: 5 baby girls named Uneeda
  • …
  • 1962: 5 baby girls named Uneeda
  • 1961: 7 baby girls named Uneeda
  • …
  • 1931: 9 baby girls named Uneeda
  • …
  • 1929: 5 baby girls named Uneeda [debut]
  • …

In fact, the popular Uneeda Biscuit was probably the very thing that inspired parents of the ’20s and ’30s to try out Uneeda as a first name.

The biscuit was a product of the National Biscuit Company, later shortened to “Nabisco.”

I’m thinking the ’60s usage was more likely inspired by the Uneeda Doll Company.

Askew

Of course, since we were in KC, we had to go and test out Google Fiber at the Google Fiber Space.

While we were there, I noticed a big map of the city on the wall. And that’s where I spotted Askew Avenue:

Askew Avenue, Kansas City
Askew Avenue, Kansas City

It goes on for blocks and blocks, perfectly straight, never veering east or west. Not askew at all! I found that funny.

Have babies ever been named Askew? Yes, hundreds. A few examples:

  • Askew Mathew, born in 1611 in Hertfordshire, England
  • Askew Beards Burbidge, born in 1751 in Warwickshire, England
  • Askew Peacock, born in 1888 in Alabama
  • Askew Kenneth Edward Taylor Askew, born in 1996 in Texas

Askew beards! What a visual.

I’m sure that in most (if not all) cases, the first name Aksew was inspired by the surname Askew, which referred originally to the village of Aiskew in North Yorkshire, England.

Bovina

We’ve taken I-80 a bunch of times, but never I-70, so the town names on this trip were all new to me.

One of the names I noticed was Bovina, which is a town in eastern Colorado. The name was surely inspired by the word “bovine.”

The states of Mississippi, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin also have places called Bovina.

And dozens of U.S. babies have been named Bovina, believe it or not. Some examples:

  • Bovina Lemming, born in 1846 in Indiana
  • Bovina Wheeler, born in 1878 in Vermont
  • Bovina Parmer, born in 1910 in Texas

…And that’s most of the names I spotted. There are a few others (e.g. Cabela) but I’ll give them their own posts.

Babies named for the Klondike Gold Rush

Klondikers ascending to the summit of Chilkoot Pass in Alaska in 1898.
Klondikers on Chilkoot Pass

Did you know that many dozens of U.S. babies were given names inspired by the Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899)?

Though the baby name Klondike has never appeared in the U.S. baby name data, it certainly would have (in both 1897 and 1898) had complete sets of data been collected during those years.

Here’s a list of many of the Klondikes (and Klondykes) I was able to find in the records. Most of the below were born in the U.S., but I threw in a couple of Canadians as well. :)

  • Klondyke A. Applegate, b. 1897 in Kansas
  • Klondike D. Ator, b. 1898 in Texas
  • Lorenson Klondike Bandy, b. 1898 in Illinois
  • Walter Klondike Boehm, b. 1897 in Missouri
  • Klondike Earl Bogardeus, b. 1897 in Ohio
  • Klondyke Gold Brown, b. 1897 in Ontario
  • Klondyke Buckles, b. 1897 in Oklahoma
  • Walter Klondike Carter, b. 1897 in Maine
  • Goda Klondike Clark, b. 1897 in Missouri
  • Clyde Klondike Counsell, b. 1897 in Utah
  • Klondike T. Crowley, b. 1897 in Yukon
  • Joseph Klondike Dawson, b. 1898 in Tennessee
  • Rufus Klondyke Derry, b. 1897 in Iowa
  • Klondike J. Dodd, b. 1898 in Texas
  • Mabel Klondike Elkins, b. 1897 in West Virginia
  • Goldy Klondike Fletcher, b. 1897 in Nebraska
  • Klondike P. Flint, b. 1897 in Ohio
  • Klondike Gray, b. 1896 in North Carolina
  • John Klondike Griffith, b. 1898 in Massachusetts
  • Klondyke Hardin, b. 1897 in Ohio
  • Harold Klondike Hathaway, b. 1897 in Massachusetts
  • Harry Klondike Hayes, b. 1897 in Washington
  • Kittie Klondike Hughes, b. 1898 in Texas
  • Klondike Goldy Kelly, b. 1897 in Ohio
  • Earl Klondike Kinahan, b. 1898 in Illinois
  • Klondyke Kirkendall, b. 1898 in West Virginia
  • Pearl Klondike Lincoln, b. 1897 in Pennsylvania
  • Chester Klondike Lindsay, b. 1897 in Missouri
  • Dewey Klondike Livingston, b. 1898 in Oklahoma
  • George Klondike Lynch, b. 1897 in Texas
  • Klondyke Moore, b. 1897 in California
  • Loren Klondike Philleo, b. 1898 in Washington
  • Klondike Schneider, b. 1897 in Illinois
  • Klondike Dewey Sengelmann, b. 1898 in Texas
  • Jack Klondyke Shriver, b. 1897 in Kansas
  • Klondyke Alaska Slaughter, b. 1897 in Kentucky
  • Klondike McKinley Smith, b. 1897 in Oregon
  • Vannie Klondyke Smith, b. 1898 in West Virginia
  • Roy Klondike Temple, b. 1898 in Oregon
  • Klondike McKinley Thomas, b. 1897 in Vermont
  • Klondike DeMoss Tucker, b. 1897 in Indiana
  • Klondike Van Horn, b. 1897 in Arkansas
  • Klondike B. Winter, b. 1897 in Michigan
  • Klondike Wymore, b. 1897 in Nebraska

I love how some parents took the theme even further with additional given names like “Goldy” and “Alaska.” Others decided to commemorate war hero George Dewey or U.S. President William McKinley.

The alternative spelling, Klondyke, was almost as prevalent in the records as the standard spelling. No doubt the newspapers — which regularly spelled the word with a “y” for some reason — were an influence here.

"Klondyke" headlines from the San Francisco Call (Aug. 1897) and the Los Angeles Herald (Jul. 1898).
Pair of “Klondyke” newspaper headlines (late 1890s)

So, how did the Klondike River — after which Klondike Gold Rush is named — come to be called “Klondike”?

The word is derived from the river’s original name: Tr’ondëk in the Hän language. Tr’ondëk means “hammerstone,” which refers to the large stones used to hammer stakes into the riverbed to create fishing weirs (which trapped fish such as salmon).

What are your thoughts on the name Klondike?

Sources: The Dawson City Museum – South Gallery, SSA, FamilySearch.org

Image: Klondikers ascending to the summit of Chilkoot Pass, Alaska, 1898 (public domain) by Eric A. Hegg