Milford

Where Milford comes from

Milford 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. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #809 among boys — 6 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1917
    Peak, #368
    230 babies named Milford — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1941
    Milford Graves born
    American jazz drummer and percussionist
  4. 1941
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #569.
  5. 1942
    Milford H. Wolpoff born
    American paleoanthropologist
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Milford Graves · American jazz drummer and percussionist, 1941–2021
  • Milford H. Wolpoff · American paleoanthropologist, born 1942
  • Milford W. Howard · American politician and lawyer, 1862–1937
  • Milford Zornes · American artist, 1908–2008

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.