# Are there any young Dicks anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077 "2019-03-13T16:24:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/41 "2019-03-14T04:26:53Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > As the child of someone who died by suicide, I implore you to let this “committed” usage die out, the same way “Dick” is. I was unaware of the term being considered objectionable, but I now understand. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/42 "2019-03-14T05:15:16Z")
You bet! I’m glad you were not offended. Cheers ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/43 "2019-03-14T05:47:49Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I’m not sure if Butch is a nickname for a particular given name (I suspect that it isn’t, but I may be mistaken), but you’re right, it’s definitely fallen out of favor. I know one Butch and it has nothing to do with his given name. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/44 "2019-03-14T07:55:41Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > I had a coworker who did the same thing at a client’s office. He leaped out of his chair to go explain that one to the CEO before their IT team could beat him to it. 😃 > > And for the OP, I work with a Dick who’s in his early 50s. That’s been the cut-off age, in my experience. Heh. There’s an Italian restaurant in this city called Prego’s (like the jarred sauce at the grocery store) and one day, my former Grandboss had corporate visitors and wanted to take them out for lunch. She typed in what she _thought_ would be their website for an online menu, into her work computer … … and that was the day she learned about preggo porn. Anyway, I don’t know anyone named Dick in real life, besides for one cranky old coot who’s well past 60 years old. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/45 "2019-03-14T09:05:29Z")
I don’t know any young Bobs either. Rob, Robbie, Bobby, Robert, but no Bob. There are certain names that are just “old fashioned” and some that are perennial. My grandparents and their siblings were all old fashioned names like Elsie, Edith, Leonard, Cecil, Walter, etc. I grew up with a lot of kids called Gregory, Nicola, Mark, Stephen, Sharon, Andrea, and most of those names will be considered old fashioned to current or future generations and lose their popularity. No real reason, it’s just generational. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/46 "2019-03-14T09:47:53Z")
As I posted in the earlier linked thread, someone should stand vigil and make note of when our last Dick dies. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/47 "2019-03-14T11:14:33Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t know any young Bobs either. Rob, Robbie, Bobby, Robert, but no Bob. Now that you mention it, you’re right; but I can’t think of any reason why Bob couldn’t make a comeback. Names that were once considered old-fashioned do sometimes come back into style (e.g. Emma). ---
**Author:** ![Jumpbass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jumpbass/32/147_2.png) [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/48 "2019-03-14T15:02:21Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Aw, Dick Trickle died? I missed it. > > I worked with a guy named Richard Head\*. NEVER call him Dick. > > \*Why did his parents hate him so? I knew a gentleman named Dick Johnson. He was a pianist and bandleader. I wish he called his band Big Dick Johnson and his Swinging Unit. (He didn’t) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/49 "2019-03-14T15:19:32Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t know any young Bobs either. Rob, Robbie, Bobby, Robert, but no Bob. My brother and my friends’ brother are Bobs. They’re in their late 30s/early 40s. Another friend has a little boy named Robert but I think he still does go by Robert. Dicky Barrett is the lead singer of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. He was born in 1964, so still older than the 1975 Dick. ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/50 "2019-03-14T15:23:08Z")
I didn’t mention there was a Dicky in baseball who was born in 1978. His full name is listed as Dicky Angel Gonzalez. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/51 "2019-03-14T15:34:01Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t know any young Bobs either. Rob, Robbie, Bobby, Robert, but no Bob. I know several Bobs, one of whom I know is my age +/- 1 year, and I was about to present him as a counter-example until I remembered I’m 50. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/52 "2019-03-14T15:37:02Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I know several Bobs, one of whom I know is my age +/- 1 year, and I was about to present him as a counter-example until I remembered I’m 50. Yup; I looked at my Facebook friends list, and I have eight Bobs on it, but they’re all my contemporaries (i.e., at least age 40, and most in their 50s). My nephew, who’s 18, has two best friends. They both happen to have Robert as their given names: one goes by Robby, and the other by Bobby. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/53 "2019-03-15T02:31:05Z")
One of the higher ups at our university, before he recently retired, was Dick Canon. Why he didn’t go by Richard or Rick, I don’t know, but the name is definitely memorable. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/54 "2019-03-15T02:42:11Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I know one Butch and it has nothing to do with his given name. Yeah, 3 of them, all nicknames. One passed away a couple of years ago, he had told us his real first name was Richard. We saw in his obit that his first name wasn’t Richard so we asked his widow if his middle name was Richard. She looked at us like we were nuts, we explained how he said his real name was Richard, she clenched her hands looked upwards and said “Butch! Why did you do things like that?” No Butch, no Richard, no middle name. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/55 "2019-03-15T02:51:04Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Dick’s Sporting Goods. And Dick Blick, the art supply store that often sports a missing letter about as often as Black Angus. 😛 Isn’t Dick a fairly common legal name in some European country? IIRC, it’s the Netherlands, and “Bob” is also a common name. Not some Dutch version of Richard or Robert, literally Dick and Bob. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/56 "2019-03-15T02:54:56Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > I’m from the 1950s and anyone I ever knew named Richard was called Richard, Rich or Rick. There was one kid in town called “Dickie,” and to my way of thinking, Dickie is far worse than Dick. I knew a woman in my old town whose legal name was Dikki. She’d be about 60 years old; IDK if she was named after anyone. In that same town, I worked with a man whose legal name was Ricky, and he went by Rick, most of the time. (His name badge did say “Ricky”, which had a customer at the window say, “What kind of name is that for a pharmacist? That’s a little kid’s name” and yes, at one time it was, but that’s the name his parents gave him when he was born.) One time, a newly-hired technician hollered “RICHARD!” at him, and I did explain that while that wasn’t his legal name, he would answer to it, and he did. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/57 "2019-03-15T05:01:00Z")
I have a cousin Richard who was born about 1964. Growing up, he went by Ricky. When he was in high school he was known as Dick (around 1980). He’s now in his 50s and goes by Richard. Apparently that’s more grownup; he’s the local school district president, so it’s working for him. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/58 "2019-03-15T05:56:06Z")
I once met a guy named Dick Pounder. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/59 "2019-03-15T14:31:18Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Why he didn’t go by Richard or Rick, I don’t know, but the name is definitely memorable. The second clause is the answer to the first clause. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077/60 "2019-03-15T16:12:38Z")
There are 4 generations of Richards in my family. The patriarch went by Dick. His son and grandson both go by Rich. The youngest goes by Richie. All hated the name Rick or Ricky. The big reason why the Richard of my generation (the third) is adamant to go by Rich is because the middle name that goes along with that first name from generation to generation is Edward. As in, his name would be Dick Ed. As in, the football team figured that out and called him that every day at practice for a couple years. And he was a popular kid! ETA: the patriarch was often called “Big Dick” once his son was born. His son was unfortunately called “Little Dick.” He very quickly started going by Rich. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-young-dicks-anymore/831077.md?page=4)