How popular is the baby name Quadree 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 Quadree.

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Popularity of the baby name Quadree


Posts that mention the name Quadree

Where did the baby name Yannick come from in the early 1980s?

Tennis player Yannick Noah
Yannick Noah

The name Yannick debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1981, and usage jumped upward a few years later, in 1983:

  • 1985: 30 baby boys named Yannick
  • 1984: 26 baby boys named Yannick
  • 1983: 30 baby boys named Yannick
  • 1982: 8 baby boys named Yannick
  • 1981: 9 baby boys named Yannick
  • 1980: unlisted
  • 1979: unlisted

The reason?

Professional tennis player Yannick (pronounced yah-neek) Noah, who was born in France in 1960, spent his childhood in Cameroon, and was discovered as an 11-year-old by tennis great Arthur Ashe.

Yannick won the French Open in 1983, and he reached career-high rankings of World No. 3 in singles and World No. 1 in doubles during the summer of 1986. But he was certainly getting press in the U.S. earlier than that.

One article from mid-1980, for instance, noted that Yannick — at that time ranked #1 in France and #12 in the world — was still seen as an anomaly in tennis:

In the United States, Yannick Noah is still a novelty. When the Frenchman plays tennis here, spectators flock to his court. Passers-by, upon seeing him, also stop. Someday, Noah hopes, Americans will watch him because he is Noah, not because he is black.

The write-up reminded me of an earlier article about another idiosyncratic tennis player, Torben Ulrich.

Speaking of being idiosyncratic…Yannick Noah, after nearly two decades of pro tennis, switched tracks and became a singer. Since then, he has scored multiple #1 hits in both France and Belgium. (Here’s Yannick’s YouTube channel.)

Usage of the name Yannick — a diminutive of Yann, a French form of John — increased again in the 2010s thanks to one of Yannick Noah’s namesakes, football player Yannick Ngakoue (who pronounces his first name yah-nihk). It saw peak usage in 2016, the same year Ngakoue joined the NFL.

Do you like the name Yannick?

P.S. While playing football at the University of Maryland, Yannick Ngakoue had a teammate named Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil. He told one reporter, “It’s not confusing. It’s pretty funny, actually. I never knew somebody’s had my name. I thought my name was very unique.” A few years later, a similar situation occurred at the University of Pittsburgh with a pair of football players named Qadree and Quadree.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Yannick Noah photo by Hans van Dijk via Nationaal Archief under CC0.

A tale of two Q(u)adrees

football field

Qadree Ollison was born in New York on September 8, 1996. Quadree Henderson was born in Delaware just four days later, on September 12. Both of their first names are pronounced kwah-dree.

Just to give you an idea of the rarity of these names in the U.S., here’s the popularity graph for Qadree:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Qadree in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Qadree

And here’s the graph for Quadree:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Quadree in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Quadree

Both Qadree Ollison and Quadree Henderson ended up becoming talented football players. Both also decided to attend the University of Pittsburgh. So, by a curious twist of fate, they found themselves on the very same college football team.

Here’s how Ollison described the experience:

I don’t know if you’ve ever met somebody with the same name as you, but it was kind of awkward, where you’re like, ‘What’s up bro, I’m Qadree’ and he’s like, ‘What’s up bro, I’m Quadree.’ And it’s like you’re talking to yourself kind of, hearing somebody else say the same name right back to you.

Here’s how Henderson described the confusion:

If me and Qadree are standing next to each other and the coach says, ‘Quadree’ we’ll both turn back and have to make eye contact with the coach and he’s like, ‘Not that Quadree, the other Qadree.’

Another fun quote from Henderson:

I always make fun of him, and tell him he needs a ‘u’ in his name for the ‘qua’ part. I tell him I’m the real Quadree because I have a ‘u’ in my name.

Where did their unique names come from? Ollison’s mom “just wanted something different,” while Henderson’s mom “said [the name] comes from Muslim descent, and it means warrior, strong and not scared of anything.”

(This makes me think their names are based on the Arabic name Qadir, which means “capable, powerful,” and — along with Hakeem, Kareem, etc. — is one of the 99 names of Allah.)

These days, Qadree Ollison is playing for the Atlanta Falcons (NFL) and Quadree Henderson is playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (CFL).

Sources:

Image: Adapted from New Meadowlands Stadium: Mezz Corner (cropped) by section215 under CC BY 2.0.

Where did the baby name Qadry come from in 1992?

Football player Qadry Ismail
Qadry Ismail

The curious name Qadry debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1992 and popped up a few more times during the rest of the 1990s:

  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: 5 baby boys named Qadry
  • 1994: unlisted
  • 1993: 13 baby boys named Qadry
  • 1992: 10 baby boys named Qadry [debut]
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: unlisted

The similar names Quadry and Quadree* also debuted in 1992.

What was the influence?

College football player Qadry Ismail (pronounced KAH-dree ISS-my-el), a wide receiver who was also known as “The Missile.” This paired nicely with “The Rocket,” the nickname of his older brother Raghib.

In 1992, Qadry was playing his final season for Syracuse Orangemen. That season was a particularly good one for the school — they won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy that year — and Qadry was a standout player on the team.

He went on to play for various NFL teams, starting with the Minnesota Vikings, from 1993 until the early 2000s.

Do you like the name Qadry? (How would you spell it?)

*We talked about a 1996 Quadree in the Tale of Two Q(u)adrees post…

Sources: Qadry Ismail – Wikipedia, SSA