Tracy

Where Tracy comes from

A Norman baronial surname from places in France, derived from the Gallo-Roman given name Thracius which referred to Thrace + the Celtic suffix *-āko (place, property). As a female given name, it is also known as a diminutive of Theresa.
— Wiktionary's entry for Tracy
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1884
    First appearance
    #851 among girls, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1954
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1962
    Tracy Austin born
    US tennis player
  4. 1964
    Tracy Chapman born
    American singer-songwriter
  5. 1970
    Peak, #10
    18,464 babies named Tracy — more than any year before or since.
  6. 1975
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #24.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional 19th century and later usage.
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
Namesakes
  • Tracy Chapman · American singer-songwriter, born 1964
  • Tracy Austin · US tennis player, born 1962
  • Tracy McGrady · American basketball player, born 1979
  • Tracy Caldwell Dyson · American chemist and NASA astronaut, born 1969
  • Tracy Morgan · American actor and comedian, born 1968

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.