Humanverse

Dick vs Dickey

American parents have registered 29,321 Dicks since 1880, against 918 Dickeys. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dick against Dickey, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dick Dickey

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Dick has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2005. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1972, when Dick had 29 and Dickey had 13.

Side by side

  Dick Dickey
Total US births 29,321918
Most in one year 1,13138
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 7,500480
Median age today 7970
Peak year 19341948
Best rank 138th boys1,160th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18801922
Girls / boys 48 / 29,2730 / 918

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Dicks alive today are over 79; half the Dickeys are over 70. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dick and Dickey.