King

Where King comes from

King 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. 1855
    King Camp Gillette born
    American entrepreneur
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #325 among boys — 27 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1894
    King Vidor born
    American film director, film producer, and screenwriter
  4. 2017
    Peak, #147
    2,696 babies named King — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2023
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #265.
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • King Vidor · American film director, film producer, and screenwriter, 1894–1982
  • King Camp Gillette · American entrepreneur, 1855–1932
  • King Baggot · American actor, screenwriter and director, 1879–1948
  • King Curtis · American saxophonist, 1934–1971
  • King Krule · English singer-songwriter, born 1994

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.