Dick Whittington is an English folk tale. The title character is a poor boy who moves in with a rich merchant. He buys a cat to help get rid of the rats in his room.
The folktale Dick Whittington mentioned above was based on a real person - Sir Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423) was a medieval merchant who was four times Lord Mayor of London. So common was Dick in England at one time that the phrase "Tom, Dick and Harry" denotes "every man". Personally, I love the name Richard - strong, handsome, traditional. Rick or Rich would be the nick names for any son of mine, though.