Aside from all that, it seems that Dex knows the answer
That article says: “The use of ‘dick’ as coarse slang for penis first arises around 1890.”
My grandfather, who as I said was born in 1907, was born and raised in rural Arkansas. The slang meaning could conceivably have taken longer to penetrate there. (Pun intended. :D)
Saying that it “could conceivably have taken longer to penetrate (Arkansas)” is something I’m not sure would stand up in court, Siam Sam and you could be ejacu…I mean ejected.
Well, we seem to have plenty of showing for “dick” being used as slang for penis going back pretty far, but I’m not sure that’s relevant. Today (going back how far?) we casually toss about the word, and it’s not just in referring to someone as a penis. I’m not sure when I first started hearing “don’t be a dick” all the time, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t everyday slang in the 1970’s.
The youngest Dick I can think of is in his early 50s. I agree that it’s generational. I know a young immigrant couple who’ve named their little boy Woody. That’s another one you don’t see much of anymore. Poor little Woody.
My daughter wrote a short story in school last year about a man named Dick, unaware of the “other” meaning. Unfortunately, there was a substitute teacher in her class that day, and when she read her story out loud, he told her, “Do you know what you’re writing?” A female classmate took her aside afterward and whispered an explanation in her ear. She told me and her father about the incident, and we explained things to her as age-appropriately as we could.
I notice there is a chain of sporting-goods stores in the LA area called Dick’s. It used to be called Chick’s. Did a guy buy the chain from a female owner or something? 
When I was a kid back in the 50s, Richard was a really common name . . . and they were all “Dick.” Well, except for a cousin of mine who is definitely more of a “Richard.”
And of course you never hear of Dick Gere, Dick Burton, Dick Prior, or Dick the Lionhearted . . . and especially not Little Dick.
They could’ve merged and called it “Chicks with…” ah, nevermind.
No, I feel certain we used that a lot in West Texas in the '70s. The early part of that decade was my formative cussing years.
My younger brother went by Dick until sometime in the late 60s when he realized the slang meaning. It was still a fairly common nickname then, not so much nowadays.
Personally, I don’t think it’s as bad as some of the last names people run around with. If my last name was Kunt (“Warden, it’s pronounced koont.”), or Fuchs, for example, I think I’d have changed it the second I turned 18.
Perhaps it didn’t apply to Richard, but I noticed that nicknaming of strangers was often done gratuitiously in San Jose, California during the 1970’s. Say “Hello, My name is Robert Jones” and the reply might be “Nice to meet you, Bob!”
Drive over the mountain to Santa Cruz and this custom was less prevalent…
I don’t understand this double meaning thing
regards
Randy
Dick=penis may be a century or more old, but Dick as short for Richard is waaaay older.
As it happens, we went to see a production of Richard III a few weeks ago, and there’s a line in there referring to “thou misshappen Dick”
I bet they had fun with that in rehearsal…
Richard Dastardly doesn’t have the same ring to it.
I had an Uncle Dick who was a Richard. He was born in the early 30’s in Canada and it was still a popular name. He went by Dick for his entire life. It’s funny how words can change their meaning to something totally opposite over time. Dick has meant so many things over the ages and now it’s another word for penis. As a kid in the 60’s it was a word for cop along with pig. It was also in the name of my first grade primer, “Dick, Jane and Sally”. I never heard of a riding whip called a dick but I guess it was? Another name bites the dust!
From Cecil’s column:
The term “dick” came to mean policeman around 1908, and then detective.
And we finally get to where you started. The use of “dick” as coarse slang for penis first arises around 1890. Tracking the history of uncouth words is not easy, since such expressions were not generally written down. How “dick” came to be associated with penis is not known, although the riding whip may have pointed the way.
So there you have it.
— Dex
We have Dick’s Sporting Goods here. Years ago my husband and his brother were looking for athletic shoes and stopped in to a shoe store to inquire about a brand. They were told no, they didn’t have them. The girl added, “Have you tried Dicks?” Apparently the two of them stood there and giggled like Beevis and Butthead.
Now of course it’s one of our favorite jokes when anything remotely connected to sporting goods is mentioned.
“Have you tried dicks?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t like 'em.”
Also, Dick Grayson and Dick Nixon go more than a few decades back.
My grandpa and father are both named Richard, so when my dad was growing up, my grandpa was “Big Dick” and my dad was “Little Dick.”
He did not like that.
Is that you, Mr Johnson?
I knew a customs officer whose name was Richard Dick.
And yes, he would answer to Dick Dick.