Dell

Where Dell comes from

Dell hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year, and the peak
    #465 among boys with 15 babies — the first year on record, and still its best.
  2. 1887
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #921.
  3. 1925
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  4. 1927
    Dell Hymes born
    American anthropologist and linguist
  5. 1964
    Dell Curry born
    American basketball player
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Dell Curry · American basketball player, born 1964
  • Dell Hymes · American anthropologist and linguist, 1927–2009
  • Dell Henderson · Canadian actor, writer and director, 1883–1956
  • Dell Demps · American basketball player-coach, born 1970
  • Dell L. Dailey · former head of the State Department's counterterrorism office, born 1949

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.