Thimothy
Masculine · “honoring God”
Thimothy adds an h that the standard spelling does not have. The name itself is one of the very few that has a grass named after it, and the grass is named for the man who sold it rather than the man who found it.
How old is the name Thimothy?
Thimothy first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Thimothy alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 600 people named Thimothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thimothy most popular?
Thimothy peaked in 1967, reaching #1198 nationally. See the whole 1967 chart.
Where it comes from
From Timotheos to Thimothy
The story of Thimothy
Timothy grass is one of the standard hay grasses of the temperate world, grown for horses and cattle across Europe and North America. It was noticed growing wild in New England in the early eighteenth century, and a farmer called Timothy Hanson took seed of it south and promoted it hard enough that the plant took his first name and kept it. It is still called that in catalogs and on feed sacks three centuries later, which is a strange kind of monument: not a species named in Latin after a scientist, but a common name attached to a salesman. The man who first identified it is barely recorded.
Meaning
honoring God
The Greek name joins a verb about honoring to the word for a god, and the reading is settled. Only the added h in this spelling is unaccounted for.
How the name formed
- Timotheos
- Timothy
- Thimothy
Related forms: Timoteo · Timothée
Pronouncing Thimothy
TIM-uh-thee
Three syllables with the stress in front. The added h at the front is silent and changes nothing.
Nicknames for Thimothy
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
- 1948
- Most boys named
- 196739 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1198reached in 1967
- Change vs 1992
- −16.7%5 in 1997, 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.
Thimothy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Timoteo in Spanish — same name
- Timothée in French — same name
Thimothys among us
people named Thimothy 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
Thimothy 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
- Tim is available as a short form from the first day and needs no explaining.
- The meaning is settled and can be given in two words.
- The sound is completely familiar, so the name is never a puzzle to say.
- Timothy is the standard spelling by an enormous margin and this one will be corrected constantly.
- The added letter cannot be heard, so the spelling has to be given aloud every single time.
- No reason for it is documented, so there is nothing to say when someone asks why.
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Thimothy
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Thimothys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Thimothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thimothy in 2025?
- Thimothy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Thimothy with classmates?
- Thimothy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thimothy? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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