Dorsey

Where Dorsey comes from

Dorsey 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.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #482 among boys — 14 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1894
    Peak, #336
    28 babies named Dorsey — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1897
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #584.
  4. 1932
    Dorsey Burnette born
    American rockabilly musician
  5. 1957
    Dorsey Wright born
    American actor
  6. 1995
    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.
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Dorsey Wright · American actor, born 1957
  • Dorsey Burnette · American rockabilly musician, 1932–1979
  • Dorsey W. Shackleford · American politician, 1853–1936
  • Dorsey Dixon · Musician, songwriter, millworker, 1897–1968
  • Dorsey Levens · player of American football, born 1970

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.