Wikipedia

Dick (nickname)

Dick is a nickname most often for Richard, which likely originated in the Middle Ages as rhyming slang for "Rick", as did William → Will → Bill and Robert → Rob → Bob. The association with "penis" is more recent, arising from Dick becoming a cliché name for any man, as in Tom, Dick and Harry.[1] The use of the nickname Dick has declined drastically in recent decades due to the association of Dick with a penis; by 1969, Dick had fallen outside of the top 1,000 most common names for newborn baby boys in the US. By 2014, there were fewer than five babies born in the United States with the name Dick on a birth certificate. [2]

Notable people

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Business

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Crime

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Entertainment

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Military

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  • Frederick Ashworth (1912–2005), United States Navy officer
  • Richard Joseph Audet (1922–1945), Canadian fighter pilot ace during World War II
  • Richard "Dick" Halsey Best (1910–2001), United States Navy pilot is credited with sinking the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi
  • Richard Bong (1920–1945), top flying ace of the US during World War II, decorated war hero, National Aviation Hall of Fame inductee
  • Richard Marcinko (1940–2021), United States Navy officer and Navy SEAL
  • Richard Winters (1918–2011), officer of the United States Army and decorated war veteran

Politics

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  • Dick Armey (born 1940), American politician and member of US House of Representatives from Texas (1985–2003)
  • Dick Cheney (born 1941), American politician who served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009
  • Dick Clark (Iowa politician) (1928–2023), American politician and U.S. Senator from Iowa (1973–1979)
  • Dick Durbin (born 1944), American politician and US senator from Illinois serving as Senate Majority Whip
  • Dick Gordon (politician) (born 1945), Filipino politician and broadcaster
  • Richard Lamm (1935–2021), American politician, writer, Certified Public Accountant, college professor, and lawyer
  • Richard Lugar (1932–2019), American politician who served as U.S. Senator from Indiana who served from 1977 to 2013
  • Richard Lyon (naval officer) (1923–2017), United States Navy admiral and former mayor of Oceanside, California
  • Dick Schoof (born 1957), current Prime Minister of the Netherlands (2024-present)
  • Dick Thornburgh (1932–2020), American politician, Governor of Pennsylvania (1979–1987), and US Attorney General (1988–1991)
  • Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon (1913–1994), American politician, President of the USA (1969–1974), Vice President (1953–1961), Senator (1950–1953), Representative (1947–1950)

Sports

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Others

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  • Dick Anthony (1939–2022), American forensic psychologist
  • Dick Assman (1934–2016), Canadian gas station worker
  • Dick Gregory (1932–2017), American civil rights activist and comedian
  • Dick Willy Gill (1994-Present), Telephonist at Pony Express

Fictional characters

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  • Dick and Jane, main characters in a children's reading book series
  • Dick Baker, character from the co-op mode of Dead Rising 3
  • Dick Grayson, the name of Robin and other superheroes in the DC Universe
  • Dick Gumshoe, a character from the visual novel series Ace Attorney
  • Dick Harper, one of the title characters in a 1977 film Fun with Dick and Jane that was remade in 2005
  • Dick Loudon, the main character in the TV show Newhart
  • Dick Solomon, the High Commander of the alien visitors in 3rd Rock from the Sun
  • Dick Tracy, comic strip referencing another usage of dick as slang for detective
  • Dick Whitman, the birth name of Donald Draper, the main character in Mad Men
  • Dick Gansey III, from The Raven Cycle

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Tony Merevick (September 8, 2016). "How Did 'Dick' Become Short for 'Richard'?". Thrillist. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  2. ^ https://medium.com/mel-magazine/where-did-all-the-dicks-go-65d39e6c6981 [bare URL]
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