Dorthy
Feminine · “gift of God”
Dorthy is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 20,338 girls against 79 boys since 1880.
Dorthy is Dorothy with the middle vowel gone — a spelling that records how American speech actually said the name, which is in two syllables rather than three.
How old is the name Dorthy?
Dorthy first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Dorthy alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 6,700 people named Dorthy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dorthy most popular?
Dorthy peaked in 1930, reaching #234 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,683 places below that high. See the whole 1930 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From doron to Dorthy
The story of Dorthy
Dorothy was a staple English name from the sixteenth century and reached the top of the American chart in the 1920s. A name that common is said quickly, and the middle vowel of Dorothy disappears in ordinary American speech — so families wrote Dorthy, which appears in the registers in real numbers rather than as scattered errors, peaking in the mid-1920s alongside the standard spelling.
Meaning
gift of God
Through Dorothea, from the Greek doron, 'gift', and theos, 'god'. It is the same pair of words as Theodora with the halves reversed, which is an unusually tidy piece of Greek naming and makes the two names exact mirrors.
How the name formed
- doron
- Dorothea
- Dorothy
- Dorthy
Related forms: Dorothea · Darya · Dorothy · Dorothea
Pronouncing Dorthy
DOR-thee
Two syllables, stress on the first. This spelling records the ordinary American pronunciation, which drops the middle vowel of the standard form.
Nicknames for Dorthy
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 1926649 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #234reached in 1930
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%8 in 2025, from 8
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.
Dorthy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dorothea in Greek — related form
- Darya in Russian — related form
- Dorothy in English — spelling variant
- Dorothea in German — related form
Dorthys among us
people named Dorthy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Dorthy
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 Lessie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dorthy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lessie climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lessie's path sketches the road Dorthy is walking now.
Dorthy 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
Dorthy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dorthy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Dorothea stands behind it with a transparent and attractive Greek meaning.
- The spelling is genuinely phonetic for American speakers.
- Dot and Dolly are both available and both have long records.
- Dorothy is overwhelmingly the standard spelling and this one will read as an error to many people.
- It is firmly period-coded to the first half of the twentieth century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Dorthy to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Dorthy? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Dorthy
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dorthys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,700 people named Dorthy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dorthy in 2025?
- Dorthy ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dorthy?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Dorthy — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dorthy with classmates?
- Dorthy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dorthy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dorthy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dorthy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle