How popular is the baby name Dick 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 Dick.

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Popularity of the baby name Dick


Posts that mention the name Dick

“Miss” Zane Grey

American author Zane Grey (1872-1939)
Zane Grey

According to a newspaper article from 1911, many people assumed that Zane Grey was a woman because of his first name:

Zane Grey, who is spending the summer at Cottage Point, Lackawaxen, Pa., complains that his unusual first name is the cause of much misunderstanding and that he has received numerous letters addressed to “Miss” Zane Grey and requests for the lady’s photograph.

But “Zane” wasn’t his actual first name. It was his middle name, taken from his mother’s maiden name.

His full name at birth was Pearl Zane Grey. He was born in early 1872 in the Ohio town of Zanesville, which was named after his maternal ancestor Ebenezer Zane.

The name “Pearl” is usually considered feminine, but it seems to have been used for males in Zane’s family; he had a male cousin named Pearl. He disliked the name and dropped it when he began his writing career.

Various sources claim the name “Pearl” was chosen because, around the time of Zane’s birth, newspapers were describing Queen Victoria’s mourning attire as pearl gray. (He was born a few weeks after the tenth anniversary of Prince Albert’s death.) I did some research, though, and couldn’t find a single American newspaper from that era that mentioned pearl gray in association with the queen.

What are your thoughts on the name Zane? Do you view it as masculine or feminine?

P.S. The Zane Grey-inspired television show Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater (1956-1961) gave rise to five (!) other TV shows. These spin-offs were behind several baby name debuts, including Hoby, Case and Cully.

Source: “Authors and their work.” Sun [New York] 14 Jul. 1911: 7.

What gave the baby name Shalamar a boost in the early 1980s?

The Shalamar album "Big Fun" (1979)
Shalamar album

Last week we talked about the name Shalimar, so this week let’s look at the similar name Shalamar, which saw its highest usage in 1980:

  • 1982: 15 baby girls and 12 baby boys named Shalamar
  • 1981: 17 baby girls and 10 baby boys named Shalamar
  • 1980: 26 baby girls and 20 baby boys named Shalamar [debut for boys]
  • 1979: unlisted
  • 1978: unlisted
  • 1977: 5 baby girls named Shalamar
  • 1976: unlisted

What’s the explanation?

American vocal/dance trio Shalamar.

The group — which featured future solo star Jody Watley, along with Howard Hewett and Jeffrey Daniel — started churning out hits regularly in 1979.

Over the next few years, two of the group’s singles earned Grammy nominations. (In early 1984, their song “Dead Giveaway” lost to “Ain’t Nobody” by Rufus & Chaka Khan.)

Interestingly, Shalamar had a name before it had any members. It was put together by Dick Griffey, the booking agent for TV’s Soul Train.

Which spelling do you prefer, Shalimar or Shalamar?

Sources: Shalamar – AllMusic, Shalamar – Wikipedia, Shalamar – Grammy.com, SSA

Where did the baby name Chantel come from in 1957?

The Chantels' album "We Are the Chantels" (1958)
The Chantels album

Though the Chantels were technically the second African-American girl-group (after the Bobbettes) to achieve chart success, they missed being first by just a matter of weeks.

The quintet of Catholic choir girls — Arlene, Lois, Renee, Jackie, and Sonia — hit the scene in the latter half of 1957 with two singles: “He’s Gone,” released in August, and “Maybe,” released in December.

“Maybe” ended up becoming a hit in early 1958, reaching #2 on the R&B charts and #15 on the Hot 100. Here are the Chantels singing (well, lip-syncing) “Maybe” on The Dick Clark Show in March:

The word “Chantels” never ended up in the U.S. baby name data, but the non-plural form Chantel started popping up in 1957:

  • 1959: 5 baby girls named Chantel
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: 5 baby girls named Chantel [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: unlisted

The spelling Chantell debuted in 1958.

And look what happened in the early ’60s:

1961196219631964
Chantel5125645
Chantell..720
Chantelle..31*30
Shantel..11*19
Chantele..9*7
Shantell..6*12
Shantelle...9*
*Debut

I’m not sure what caused that explosion of variants in 1963. The Chantels’ next-biggest hit, “Look In My Eyes” (1961), is probably too early to account for it. The answer might be the 1962 movie If a Man Answers, which featured a character named Chantal played by Sandra Dee.

So where did the Chantels get their name? From a Catholic parish in the Bronx — but not their own, St. Anthony of Padua. Here’s the story:

The girls were performing at a dance at St. Francis [sic] de Chantal parish in Throgs Neck, got a terrific hand from the audience, and had a brainstorm for the name of their group.

They simply altered Chantal — a French place name meaning “stony” — to create Chantel.

Do you like the name Chantel? Do you like it more or less than Chantal?

Sources:

Where did the baby name Viviette come from in 1919?

Illustration from the book "Viviette" (1910) by W. J. Locke

The rare name Viviette first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1919:

  • 1921: unlisted
  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: 6 baby girls named Viviette [debut]
  • 1918: unlisted
  • 1917: unlisted

After 1919, it fell off the charts for nearly a century before reappearing in 2014 (and hence being knocked off the one-hit wonder list).

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) also reveals a slight uptick in usage in 1919:

  • 1921: 0 people named Viviette
  • 1920: 1 people named Viviette
  • 1919: 3 people named Viviette
  • 1918: 1 people named Viviette
  • 1917: 1 people named Viviette

So what was the cause? The silent film Viviette, released way back in 1918.

Coincidentally, the character Viviette was played by an actress with a very similar name: Vivian Martin. Both names can be traced back to the Latin word vivus, which means “alive, living.”

The movie was based on the book Viviette (1910) by William J. Locke. Here’s a synopsis:

Viviette is a girl of many lovers, but for the purpose of this story the number narrows down to two, the brothers, Austin and Dick Ware. Austin is the brilliant successful one of the two, Dick, hot tempered and passionate, is the failure. Viviette plays one off against the other and carries the flirtation to dangerous lengths. But in the end she makes her choice.

Which name do you like better, Viviette or Vivian?

Sources: