Dot, Al, Bob and Red: the nicknames in Massachusetts senior classes, 1917-1945

In the 1920s the most common nickname in a Massachusetts senior class was Dot. By 1940–45 it was Bob. Across 21,821 printed nicknames in 170 yearbooks, Dot comes first with 600, and 426 of the 626 Dorothys in those books carried it.

• 600seniors named Dot, the most common nickname
• 426 of 626Dorothys were Dot
• 137 of 439Als were Alices
• 199 of 234Macs had a Mc or Mac surname

The top of the list

After Dot come Al (439), Bob (402), Bill (342), Joe (333), Betty (273), Dick (235) and Mac (234). Two of those are not what they look like. Al was not only a boy’s nickname: 137 of the 439 Als were Alices, against 92 Alberts and 49 Alfreds. And Mac mostly went with a Mc or Mac surname (199 of 234).

Dot gives way to Bob

Dot was 3.23% of all nicknames printed in the 1920s and 1.81% in 1940–45, where Bob (2.74%), Al, Bill and Joe came ahead of it. Dick and Red both gained. The period lists are not from the same schools, so read the direction, not the decimals.

Who got a nickname, and what it was

• Dorothy: 90% printed a nickname; Dot 426, Dottie 44, Dolly 11.
• Robert: 91% had one, and 367 of 573 were Bob. Richard: 210 Dicks of 312.
• William: Bill 297, Billy 24. Margaret: Peggy 158, Peg 109. Elizabeth: Betty 198.
• Mary, the commonest name in these books (913 seniors), had a nickname printed for only 56%.

The nicknames that are not short forms of the name are the interesting ones. Red leads with 204, then Bud (104), Shorty (62), Blondie (56), Smitty (51) and Kitty (48).

How we counted

Only yearbooks that print a nickname for at least 30% of their (40 or more) seniors are used: 170 books and 28,906 seniors, of whom 21,821 (75.5%) have a printed nickname. A book that never printed nicknames cannot make a class look nickname-free.

Each distinct nickname counts once per senior (a senior with “Pat, Mickey” counts for both). Nicknames the page-reading software misread once or twice (“Kiffv”) stay in totals but are never named here: every nickname named has 25 or more uses. A nickname is “unrelated to the given name” when its first two letters differ from the given name’s and it is not on a short list of standard short forms.

The script is work/stories/s04_nicknames.py.

The scans belong to the libraries that digitised them; each person page links back to its scan. Corrections and removal requests: hello@theclassalbum.com or /rights.

Nicknames appear on person pages as printed. Browse a class to see them.

Use these charts

Reporters, librarians, teachers and society newsletters are welcome to use the charts on this page with a link back. Copy the snippet under the chart you want; it carries the credit. Every number can be recomputed from the archive’s data (see “How we counted”), and a reporter who wants a different cut, such as one school or one class year, can ask at hello@theclassalbum.com.

<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/top-nicknames.png" alt="Most common senior nicknames" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/">Dot, Al, Bob and Red: the nicknames in Massachusetts senior classes, 1917-1945</a></p>

<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/nicknames-over-time.png" alt="Dot, Bob, Bill, Al, Red and Dick over time" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/">Dot, Al, Bob and Red: the nicknames in Massachusetts senior classes, 1917-1945</a></p>

<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/unrelated-nicknames.png" alt="Nicknames unrelated to the name" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/senior-nicknames-dot-bob-red/">Dot, Al, Bob and Red: the nicknames in Massachusetts senior classes, 1917-1945</a></p>

More data stories

• Boston University or Harvard? Where Massachusetts seniors said they were headed, 1920s-1940s
• The war in the senior class: Massachusetts seniors who named the service, 1939-1945
• Barbara rises, Mildred fades: first names in Massachusetts senior classes, 1920s-1940s
• The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities
• The most common surnames in Massachusetts senior classes, town by town
• Girls, boys and the course of study: who took commercial, college and technical in Massachusetts high schools
• Before they were famous: 70 notable people in Massachusetts high school yearbooks

Numbers come from the archive's own records and are reproducible; see how the archive is made.