Watson

Where Watson comes from

Watson 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. 1838
    Watson C. Squire born
    American politician (Republican)
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #526 among boys — 12 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1882
    Peak, #389
    21 babies named Watson — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1885
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #836.
  5. 1894
    Watson Washburn born
    American tennis player
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Watson Washburn · American tennis player, 1894–1973
  • Watson C. Squire · American politician (Republican), 1838–1926
  • Watson Kirkconnell · Canadian translator and scholar, 1895–1977
  • Watson Nyambek · Malaysian athletics competitor, born 1976
  • Watson Davis · American librarian academic, 1896–1967

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.