Dudley

Where Dudley comes from

From Old English, literally "wood or clearing of Dudda (a personal name of unknown meaning)".
— Wiktionary's entry for Dudley
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #325 among boys — 27 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1881
    Peak, #289
    30 babies named Dudley — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1932
    Dudley R. Herschbach born
    American chemist
  4. 1935
    Dudley Moore born
    British actor, comedian, composer and musician
  5. 1994
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #4,094.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname, of 19th century and later usage.
Namesakes
  • Dudley R. Herschbach · American chemist, born 1932
  • Dudley Moore · British actor, comedian, composer and musician, 1935–2002
  • Dudley Senanayake · Sri Lankan politician, 1911–1973
  • Dudley Pound · Royal Navy admiral of the fleet, 1877–1943
  • Dudley Storey · New Zealand rower, 1939–2017

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.