Ned

Where Ned comes from

Ned 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. 1854
    Ned Kelly born
    Australian bushranger
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #286 among boys — 33 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1890
    Peak, #237
    49 babies named Ned — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1901
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #399.
  5. 1937
    Ned Beatty born
    American actor
In the dictionary

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

Namesakes
  • Ned Beatty · American actor, 1937–2021
  • Ned Kelly · Australian bushranger, 1854–1880
  • Ned Zelic · Australian association football player, born 1971
  • Ned Luke · American actor, born 1958
  • Ned Lamont · Governor of Connecticut since 2019, born 1954

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.