Dorothy
Masculine · “gift of God”
Dorothy is given to girls far more often — 1,112,231 girls against 3,677 boys since 1880. See Dorothy as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Dorothy alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 800 people named Dorothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dorothy most popular?
Dorothy peaked in 1931, reaching #478 nationally. See the whole 1931 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
- 1894
- Most boys named
- 1930153 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #478reached in 1931
- Change vs 1983
- 0.0%6 in 1989, 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.
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
Dorothys among us
people named Dorothy 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
Dorothy 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 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.
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What they receive
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Dorothy
Masculine
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 800 people named Dorothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dorothy in 2025?
- Dorothy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Dorothy with classmates?
- Dorothy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dorothy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dorothy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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