Ballard

Where Ballard comes from

Ballard 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. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #809 among boys — 6 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1882
    Ballard MacDonald born
    American lyricist
  3. 1889
    Peak, #549
    12 babies named Ballard — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1890
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  5. 1904
    Ballard Berkeley born
    British actor of stage and screen
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Ballard Berkeley · British actor of stage and screen, 1904–1988
  • Ballard MacDonald · American lyricist, 1882–1935
  • Ballard F. Smith · Baseball executive, born 1946
  • Ballard Smith · Continental Army officer and politician, 1800–1900
  • Ballard C. Campbell · American historian, born 1940

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.