Dickey
Derived from the surname Dickey, a diminutive form of Richard.
Name Census estimates that about 532 living Americans carry the first name Dickey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dickey today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dickey births was 1948 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dickey. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Dickey is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Dickeys were born before 1964.
People living today
532
~ 1 in 644,275 Americans
Peak year
1948
38 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1978 SSA rank
#6,061
Tracked since 1922
Census
Dickey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 550 people with the first name Dickey, which placed it at #19,306 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#19,306
National first-name rank
People counted
550
550 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dickey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dickey is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.2%) and Black (8.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dickey described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dickey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.0% · 396
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.2% · 56
- Black or African American8.5% · 47
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 24
- Two or more races3.1% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 10
Popularity
Dickey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dickey from the 1920s through to the 1970s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 264 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dickey by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dickey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dickeys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, Arkansas, Alabama recorded the most babies named Dickey, while Alabama, Arkansas, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 39 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dickey
The given name Dickey is believed to have originated as a diminutive form of the English name Richard, which is derived from the Germanic elements "ric" meaning power and "hard" meaning brave or hardy. The earliest recorded use of Dickey as a given name dates back to the late Middle Ages in England, around the 14th or 15th century.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Dickey was an English politician and landowner named Dickey Bowyer, who lived in the early 16th century. Another notable historical figure with the name Dickey was Dickey Pearce, an English highwayman and robber from the 17th century, who gained notoriety for his daring exploits and narrow escapes from the authorities.
In the realm of literature, the name Dickey appears in the works of renowned English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. In his play "The Merry Wives of Windsor," one of the characters is referred to as "Dickey Husbandman," which was likely a reference to the name's association with rural or agricultural contexts.
Moving forward to the 18th century, Dickey Bowers was a British naval officer who served during the American Revolutionary War and played a role in several naval engagements against the American forces. In the same century, Dickey Pearson was a notable English painter and engraver, whose works were highly regarded for their attention to detail and technical mastery.
In more recent times, one of the most famous individuals to bear the name Dickey was James Dickey, an American poet and novelist born in 1923 and renowned for his works such as "Deliverance" and "Buckdancer's Choice." Dickey's writing often explored themes of nature, masculinity, and the human condition, earning him a prominent place in 20th-century American literature.
People
Dickey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dickey as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dickey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dickey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 532 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dickey going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 644,275 US residents.
Is Dickey a common name?
We classify Dickey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 918 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dickey most popular?
The single biggest year for Dickey was 1948, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dickey is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dickey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 550 people with the name Dickey, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,306 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dickey in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dickey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dickey leans strongly male. 471 people counted with this name were male (85.5%), compared with 80 female bearers (14.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dickey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dickey is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.2%) and Black (8.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dickey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dickey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.0% (396 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dickey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dickey a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dickey in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dickey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dickey in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dickey can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Dickey?
Find out how many people have the name Dickey on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.