Dorla
Feminine
Dorla did something in the 1920s that names very rarely do: it appeared out of nothing, climbed higher in a few years than most rare names ever reach, and then disappeared again within a generation. Something carried it. The record shows the shape of the wave perfectly and says nothing whatever about what caused it.
How old is the name Dorla?
Dorla first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Dorla alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 400 people named Dorla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dorla most popular?
Dorla peaked in 1930, reaching #513 nationally. See the whole 1930 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dora and Dorothy at their height in American naming to Dorla
Our story of Dorla
The interesting thing about a name like this is what the shape of its rise tells you. Names that spread by family tradition climb slowly and fall slowly, over three or four generations. Names that come from a book or a film or a song go up like a struck match and come down almost as fast, and the whole event fits inside twenty years. Dorla has the second shape exactly. Somewhere there was a character, or a singer, or a woman in a newspaper story that everybody read in a particular season — something loud enough to be copied across a whole country and quiet enough to be forgotten completely. The wave is still in the record. The thing that made it is not.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The front looks like Dora or Dorothy, both of which were enormous at the time, and the ending was fashionable across the whole period. That is a description, not an etymology. No reference work lists Dorla, no family tradition has been recorded, and there is no saint, novel, song or performer that anyone has been able to attach to it. A name can be popular enough to be visible in national statistics and still leave no trace of why.
How the name formed
- Dora and Dorothy at their height in American naming
- Dorla appears in the record in the 1920s
- rises to its high point within a decade
- falls away as quickly as it rose
- no source has ever been identified
Related forms: Dora · Dorlas
Pronouncing Dorla
DOR-luh
Two syllables, stress at the front, and a second syllable that is barely a vowel at all. Nobody has ever needed help with it.
Nicknames for Dorla
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
- 1923
- Most girls named
- 1930171 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #513reached in 1930
- Change vs 1969
- −16.7%5 in 1970, from 6
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.
Dorla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dora in English — related form
- Dorlas in English — spelling variant
Dorlas among us
people named Dorla are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Dorla sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, soft and completely readable at first sight.
- It sits beside Dora and Nora, both of which are in current revival, without being either.
- It is genuinely rare now while having been genuinely used once, which is a rarer combination than it sounds.
- There is no meaning and no origin, and the honest answer to a child asking is that nobody knows.
- It will be heard as Darla, Dora and Doria by people meeting it for the first time.
- The name is closely tied to the decades between the wars.
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What they receive
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Dorla
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dorlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Dorla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dorla in 2025?
- Dorla is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Dorla with classmates?
- Dorla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dorla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dorla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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