Dee

Where Dee comes from

The dictionaries list Dee as a given name — a unisex given name, short for names beginning with D — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #738 among girls — 6 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1948
    Dee Wallace born
    American actress
  3. 1962
    Dee Bradley Baker born
    American voice actor
  4. 1962
    Peak, #381
    609 babies named Dee — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1971
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #629.
  6. 2011
    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.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name, short for names beginning with D.
Namesakes
  • Dee Bradley Baker · American voice actor, born 1962
  • Dee Wallace · American actress, born 1948
  • Dee Brown · American writer and historian, 1908–2002
  • Dee Hsu · Taiwanese host, actress, and singer, born 1978
  • Dee Palmer · British musician, 1937–2026

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.