Dory
Feminine · “gift”
Dory is given to both — 968 girls and 124 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
A dory is a flat-bottomed fishing boat, and the word came into English from the Caribbean — from Miskito, a language of the Nicaraguan coast, where dori is a dugout canoe. There is also a fish called the John Dory with a black spot on its side that fishermen have always said is Saint Peter's thumbprint.
How old is the name Dory?
Dory first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Dory alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 900 people named Dory are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dory most popular?
Dory peaked in 1964, reaching #2040 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 9,892 places below that high. See the whole 1964 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From doron to Dory
The story of Dory
The boat word is a good example of how English collects vocabulary: sailors met a dugout canoe on the Mosquito Coast, took the local word, and applied it later to a completely different kind of flat-bottomed boat used off New England. The fish is older and stranger. The John Dory has a dark round mark on each flank, and across Europe the story is the same — Saint Peter picked the fish up to take a coin from its mouth and left his thumb and finger behind. The French call it Saint Peter's fish and so do the Spanish and the Germans. None of it has anything to do with the name, which is simply Dorothy or Doris made short, and which serves either child.
Meaningscholars disagree
gift
As a name, Dory is a clip of Dorothy, Doris or Isadora, all built on Greek doron, a gift. The boat and the fish are separate words with separate histories and neither is a source. Doris, one of the possible parents, was a sea nymph and the mother of the fifty Nereids.
How the name formed
- doron
- Dorothy
- Dory
Pronouncing Dory
DOR-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the boat. Dory, Dorie and Dorrie are said identically; only the ending is spelled differently.
Nicknames for Dory
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
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 197232 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2040reached in 1964
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%7 in 2025, from 10
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.
Dorys among us
people named Dory are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Dory
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dory
- #11932
- Dory on the 2025 chart
- #936
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dory went to 7 girls in 2025, but Dori is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 24, which makes it the 936th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,996 places above the chart.
- Dori17
- Dory7
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Dory itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Gearline test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dory's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gearline climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gearline's path sketches the road Dory is walking now.
Dory 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
Dory beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dory in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables that everyone can already say and spell.
- It serves either child without adjustment, and the records show both.
- Dorothy and Doris are both available as formal versions, which most pet forms do not have.
- An enormously popular animated film gave the name to a forgetful fish, and that is now the first association for anyone under thirty.
- It is a pet form used as a full name, which reads as informal on paper.
- Dori and Dorie are both in use, so the spelling will be given.
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Dory
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dorys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Dory are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dory?
- Dory is one of 2 recorded spellings. Dori is the more common one — 17 births in 2025 against 7 for Dory.
- How popular is the name Dory in 2025?
- Dory ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dory?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Dory — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dory with classmates?
- Dory will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dory
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dory? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dory and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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