Dorothe
Feminine · “Gift of God”
Dorothe is a Continental short-ended form of Dorothea, 'gift of God', close to the German Dorothee and the Danish Dorthe. Its German history includes a Dorothea who told the Brothers Grimm some of their stories and then married one of them.
How old is the name Dorothe?
Dorothe first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Dorothe alive today was born around 1922, making them about 103 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Dorothe are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Dorothe most popular?
Dorothe peaked in 1922, reaching #1089 nationally. See the whole 1922 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dorothea to Dorothe
The story of Dorothe
Dorothea spread across Europe in the Middle Ages, and German and Scandinavian speakers wore it down to Dorothee, Dorthe and Dorothe. Henriette Dorothea Wild, called Dortchen at home, grew up near the Grimm brothers in Kassel and told Wilhelm several of the tales that went into their collection; in 1825 she married him. A century earlier another German Dorothea, Dorothea Erxleben, had petitioned Frederick the Great for leave to study, and in 1754 she became the first woman to take a medical degree at a German university, at Halle. In the American record the name has always been rare.
Meaning
Gift of God
From Greek doron, 'gift', and theos, 'god'; Dorothe drops the final a of Dorothea.
How the name formed
- Dorothea
- Dorothe
Related forms: Dorothee · Dorthe · Dorothea · Dorothy
Pronouncing Dorothe
DOR-uh-thee
In German it is closer to doh-roh-TAY; American families generally say DOR-uh-thee, like Dorothy.
Nicknames for Dorothe
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 192249 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1089reached in 1922
- Change vs 1960
- +20.0%6 in 1961, from 5
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.
Dorothe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dorothee in German — spelling variant
- Dorthe in Danish — related form
- Dorothea in Greek — same name
- Dorothy in English — related form
Dorothes among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Dorothe are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Dorothe 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
- A settled meaning, gift of God, that is easy to explain.
- Sounds almost like Dorothy, so most people will say it correctly.
- Belongs to a name with forms in nearly every European language.
- Most people will assume it is Dorothy misspelled or Dorothea missing a letter.
- The German and American pronunciations differ; decide which one the family uses.
- It is very rare and reads as old-fashioned, which some families love.
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Dorothe
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dorothes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Dorothe are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Dorothe in 2025?
- Dorothe is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Dorothe with classmates?
- Dorothe 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 Dorothe? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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