Doris
Feminine · “of the Dorians”
Doris is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 462,548 girls against 3,241 boys since 1880. See Doris as a boy name
Doris is one of a very small number of Greek women's names that English took over without changing a letter. Not Latinized, not respelt, not fitted with an English ending — the Greek word, as it stands, used as an English name, which almost nothing else in the language manages.
How old is the name Doris?
Doris was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Doris alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 136,000 people named Doris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Doris most popular?
Doris peaked in 1929, reaching #6 nationally. Today it ranks #2895, 2,889 places below that high. See the whole 1929 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Doris
The Victorians revived Greek names in quantity and mostly adapted them: Penelope kept its shape but Phoebe, Chloe and Zoe all had to be taught to English mouths, and many others were dropped as unusable. Doris came through untouched because it happened to fit English phonology exactly — two syllables, a consonant cluster English already has, a spelling that reads correctly at sight. It then had an extraordinary run in America and a long afterlife: one enormously visible film star kept the name in front of the public for decades after parents had stopped giving it, which is why it now reads as a name from a particular set of films rather than from Greece.
Meaningscholars disagree
of the Dorians
The name is tied to one of the Greek peoples, and behind that to a region. Beyond the connection to that people, its sense is not recoverable; Greek personal names of this age often are not.
Pronouncing Doris
DOR-iss
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Said the same way in English, German and modern Greek, which is unusual.
Nicknames for Doris
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 192716,512 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #6reached in 1929
- Change vs 2022
- −32.6%58 in 2025, from 86
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Doris in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Doris in Greek — transliteration
- Doris in German — same name
- Doris in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Doriss among us
people named Doris are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,712 born in 2025 was named Doris
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Mildred test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Doris's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mildred climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mildred's path sketches the road Doris is walking now.
Doris sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Doris is headed
Doris should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Doris beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Doris in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing.
- It is the Greek word unchanged, which very few English names can claim.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- It is one of the most generation-marked names in the language.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
- Its meaning is genuinely uncertain, so books that give one confidently are guessing.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Doris
Feminine · #2895 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Doriss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 136,000 people named Doris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Doris in 2025?
- Doris ranks #2895 among US girl names in 2025, with 58 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Doris?
- About 1 in every 27,712 US girls born in 2025 was named Doris — 58 in all.
- Will my child share the name Doris with classmates?
- Doris will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Doris
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Noora#2895 · Mylie#2895 · Vanellope#2895 · Amore#2895 · Miamor#2895 · Alyah#2895 · Alaska#2895 · Anastacia#2895
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Doris? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Doris and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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