Dennis

The name derives from the Greek Dionysios by way of medieval French Denis. Norman clerks carried it across the English Channel during the eleventh century, where it established roots as both a given name and a surname. The name appeared in American birth records from 1880, but its nationwide climb gathered speed in the late nineteen-forties.

The name reads as a man in a zip-up windbreaker inspecting a lawnmower pull cord. With an average bearer age of sixty-three and fifty-six percent belonging to the Baby Boom, it carries the specific frequency of aluminum storm doors and rotary telephones. A Dennis tends to be pictured with an organized jar of assorted brass wood screws and a firm opinion on small-engine oil. The name peaked in 1952, ranked eighteenth nationwide, and has since declined to fewer than four hundred infants a year.