Doctor

Where Doctor comes from

Doctor 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. 1825
    Doctor Willard Bliss born
    American physician (1825-1889) who treated President Garfield in 1881
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #600 among boys — 10 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1884
    Peak, #547
    12 babies named Doctor — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1885
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #936.
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Doctor Willard Bliss · American physician (1825-1889) who treated President Garfield in 1881, 1825–1889

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.