Here's How Much President Nixon Dicked Up The Name "Richard"

The 37th president of the United States receives blame for misdeeds as varied and sordid as throwing a monkey wrench in the 1968 Vietnam War peace talks  to joking with Henry Kissinger  in 1971 about the CIA's failure to assassinate the Chilean President. (We won't even mention the "W" word.)

 But in one area, at least, Richard Milhous Nixon has so far escaped culpability: the  collateral damage he wrought upon the name Richard.  

Yes, as name data retrieved from the Social Security Administration shows, Tricky Dick's era in office coincided with a sudden limpness in the name's popularity. While we're hesitant to say it's causation, we note that a dramatic decline in new Dicks begins in 1968 and continues, unabated, until Nixon's death in 1994.

 (Just FYI, the name "Donald" ranked 418 in 2014. We can only speculate what a Trump Presidency might do to its popularity.)

 Names matter more than you think. For more on the curious science of names, check out the story of how names can determine destiny , as presented by Tito's Handmade Vodka.