Doc

Where Doc comes from

Doc 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. 1851
    Doc Holliday born
    gambler, gunfighter, and dentist in the American West
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #640 among boys — 9 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1883
    Peak, #412
    18 babies named Doc — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1890
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #667.
  5. 1992
    Doc Shaw born
    American actor, singer and rapper
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Doc Holliday · gambler, gunfighter, and dentist in the American West, 1851–1887
  • Doc Shaw · American actor, singer and rapper, born 1992
  • Doc Hastings · American politician, born 1941
  • Doc Severinsen · American jazz trumpeter, born 1927
  • Doc McGhee · American music manager, born 1950

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.