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By Doris Hennen

For the Herald

The Doris Club held its 2024 gathering/convention in Austin on Friday.

The Doris Club had its origins in the southwestern Minnesota town of Storden, where in the fall of 1959, mothers of four of the 23 first-grade students were named Doris. The first grade teacher’s given name, though she went by Ginger, was also named Doris.

A number of years later, a Doris Jean joined the elementary school faculty and came up with the idea to have all of these Dorises get together for a coffee party, however, it was something they talked about, but never got around to actually doing.

Sadly, Doris Jean died in 1991, however, the first meeting of what would become the Doris Club took place in 1995 when 10 met at the Storden Cafe.

The group grew by word of mouth and being featured in various media: newspapers, magazine, a book, radio and television. Most of the members are from Minnesota.

Until her 2019 death, actress/singer Doris Day was an honorary member. A Doris from Rapid City, South Dakota is a regular member.

The club is very informal and there are no officers or donors. Members take turns hosting the luncheon meetings, which often feature a speaker for some type of program. Often Doris’ husbands, sisters, daughters and friends accompany their Doris to the meeting.

The Doris members of the group jokingly refer to the non-Dorises as Doris For A Day and Doris wannabees. Over the years, meetings have been held in various cities, mostly in central and southwestern Minnesota. This year, club member Doris Stalboerger is hosted in her hometown of Austin.

The name “Doris” has fallen out of use and the group is getting smaller and smaller because there aren’t as many Dories as there once were. It was a very popular name in the first part of the 20th century.

For 10 consecutive years (1924-1933) it was a top 10 favorite. The highest point came in 1929 when Doris was the sixth most popular baby girl’s name in the U.S. after Mary, Betty, Dorothy, Helen and Margaret.

In 1955, the name Doris fell off America’s top 100 list. In 1993, Doris dropped off the top 1,000 girls’ names list and has nearly completely fallen out of use.

In recent years, some more traditional classic names such as Adeline, Cora, Evelyn and Vera have experienced a comeback and become popular. Perhaps someday the name Doris will experience a similar comeback.