Curley

Where Curley comes from

Curley 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. 1881
    First appearance
    #781 among boys, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1902
    Peak, #490
    19 babies named Curley — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1904
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  4. 1906
    Curley Weaver born
    American blues musician
  5. 1909
    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.
  6. 1946
    Curley Culp born
    American football player
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Curley Weaver · American blues musician, 1906–1962
  • Curley Culp · American football player, 1946–2021
  • Curley Johnson · American football player, 1935–2016
  • Curley Bridges · American electric blues, rock-and-roll, and rhythm-and-blues singer, pianist and songwriter, 1934–2014
  • Curley Stecker · American animal trainer, 1892–1924

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.