Dorothy
Feminine · “gift of God”
Dorothy is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,112,231 girls against 3,677 boys since 1880. See Dorothy as a boy name
Dorothy has been through everything a name can go through: centuries of ordinary use, a saint with an unusually charming legend, a period at the very top of the American lists, a long fall, and one film that fixed an image of it in every English speaker's head whether they wanted it or not.
How old is the name Dorothy?
Dorothy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Dorothy alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 272,000 people named Dorothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dorothy most popular?
Dorothy peaked in 1920, reaching #2 nationally. Today it ranks #421, 419 places below that high. See the whole 1920 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dorothea to Dorothy
The story of Dorothy
The legend attached to Saint Dorothy is short and very hard to forget. On her way to execution in the depths of winter, a lawyer named Theophilus mocked her and asked her to send him fruit and flowers from the garden of paradise she was so sure of. After her death a child appeared at his door with a basket of roses and apples, in February, and the lawyer converted on the spot. Medieval Europe loved the story, painted it constantly, and the name went everywhere. It reached England in the fifteenth century, became thoroughly ordinary, and rose again in America at the start of the twentieth. Then in 1939 a Kansas farm girl in a gingham dress walked into color, and the name has never been fully separable from her since.
Meaning
gift of God
From the Greek doron, a gift, and theos, God. The meaning has never been disputed and has never shifted.
How the name formed
- Dorothea
- Dorothy
Related forms: Dorothea · Dorotea · Dorota · Darya · Dorotea
Pronouncing Dorothy
DOR-uh-thee
Three syllables with the weight at the front. German and Polish give the fuller form four, and put the weight on the third.
Nicknames for Dorothy
High
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
- 192439,996 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2reached in 1920
- Change vs 2022
- +15.2%743 in 2025, from 645
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.
Dorothy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dorothea in German — same name
- Dorotea in Italian — same name
- Dorota in Polish — same name
- Darya in Russian — related form
- Dorotea in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Dorothys among us
people named Dorothy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,163 born in 2025 was named Dorothy
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 Helen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dorothy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Helen climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Helen's path sketches the road Dorothy is walking now.
Dorothy has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Dorothy is headed
Dorothy should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Dorothy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dorothy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a form in every European language and is recognized across all of them.
- The meaning is short, warm and completely settled, which is rare.
- It carries an unusually large set of short forms, from the very plain Dot to the elegant Thea.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- One film has attached itself permanently, and a child will hear about the shoes.
- It is strongly generation-marked in America despite its recent return.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Dorothy to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Dorothy
Feminine · #421 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dorothys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 272,000 people named Dorothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dorothy in 2025?
- Dorothy ranks #421 among US girl names in 2025, with 743 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dorothy?
- About 1 in every 2,163 US girls born in 2025 was named Dorothy — 743 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dorothy with classmates?
- Dorothy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dorothy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Willa#422 · Joy#419 · Melissa#419 · Opal#423 · Sarai#424 · Harley#418 · Marceline#424 · Charlee#417
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dorothy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dorothy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Or jump into a head-to-head
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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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