How popular is the baby name Dodi 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 Dodi.

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Popularity of the baby name Dodi


Posts that mention the name Dodi

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

  • (none yet)

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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: Dec. 2023]

What turned Dodi into a boy name (briefly) in the late 1990s?

Dodi Al Fayed and Diana on the cover of People magazine (Aug. 25, 1997).
Dodi Al Fayed and Diana

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