I just looked at both
Debra and
Deborah's popularity and I cannot believe how popular they were in the 50s! Both spellings were in the top 10! I imagine this means that
Deb names were more common than
Mary.
Debbie is awful to my ears, but I guess it's just because I have bad associations. If I wasn't so dated to the 50s, I bet it'd be back in with the other nicknamy names, like
Addie,
Maddie,
Emmie,
Evie,
Tilly, etc.
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