Archie

Where Archie comes from

Clipping of Archibald + -ie. The sense “anti-aircraft artillery” is said to be from airmen dodging hostile fire and shouting “Archibald, certainly not”, the refrain of a then popular music hall song of the same name first performed by George Robey in 1911. This habit probably originated with the pilot and commander Amyas Borton (1886–1969).
— Wiktionary's entry for Archie
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #83 among boys — 183 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1890
    Peak, #79
    221 babies named Archie — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1972
    Archie Panjabi born
    British actress
  4. 1978
    Archie Thompson born
    Australian association football player
  5. 1987
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #896.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the male given name Archibald, from the Germanic languages, also used as a formal given name.
  • A female given name.
Namesakes
  • Archie Panjabi · British actress, born 1972
  • Archie Thompson · Australian association football player, born 1978
  • Archie Shepp · American jazz musician, born 1937
  • Archie Hahn · German-American athlete, 1880–1955
  • Archie Gray · English association football player, born 2006

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.