Thora
Feminine · “of Thor”
Thora is the feminine of Thor, and it is one of the very few Norse god-names that survived Christianisation as an ordinary personal name. Iceland, Denmark and Norway have used it continuously for a thousand years. Its American peak is 1894, with the Scandinavian migration to the upper Midwest.
How old is the name Thora?
Thora first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Thora alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 800 people named Thora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thora most popular?
Thora peaked in 1894, reaching #609 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 5,308 places below that high. See the whole 1894 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Thorr to Thora
The story of Thora
Norse naming used god-names as elements without any sense that this was presumptuous, and Thor was by far the most productive: roughly a quarter of recorded Icelandic names of the settlement period contain it. Christianisation removed most pagan god-names from European naming, but the Thor names in Scandinavia survived, partly because they were so numerous and partly because the element had become a name-building block rather than an invocation. Thora, Thorbjorn and Thorvald are all still in use. American records show Thora with Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic migration in the late nineteenth century, and its 1894 peak sits with that cohort.
Meaning
of Thor; the thunder god's name in feminine form
Old Norse Thora is formed from Thorr, the thunder god, whose name is simply the Old Norse word for thunder — related to German Donner and English thunder. Thor names were extraordinarily common in the Norse world and produced a great many compounds: Thorbjorn, Thorstein, Thorvald, Thordis, Thorunn. Thora is the simplest of them, the god's name with a feminine ending. The derivation is settled.
How the name formed
- Thorr
- Thora
- Thora
Related forms: Thora · Thora · Tora · Tora
Pronouncing Thora
THOR-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first. English says the th as in thin; Scandinavian languages use a plain t, TOR-ah, which is why Tora is the standard modern Swedish and Danish spelling. Both are heard on American bearers.
Nicknames for Thora
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
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 191567 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #609reached in 1894
- Change vs 2023
- −39.4%20 in 2025, from 33
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.
Thora in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thora in Norwegian — same name
- Thora in Icelandic — same name
- Tora in Danish — spelling variant
- Tora in Swedish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota.
Thoras among us
people named Thora are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Thora
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Thora 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
Thora beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Thora in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is one word long and connects to a figure everyone recognizes.
- It is short, strong-sounding and easy to spell in English.
- It has a thousand years of continuous Scandinavian use behind it.
- The th is sounded in English and not in Scandinavian, which produces two different names.
- It is close to Nora, Dora and Cora and will be misheard.
- Its American curve is late-nineteenth-century, which places a bearer's generation.
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What they receive
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Thora
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Thoras 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 Thora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thora in 2025?
- Thora ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Thora?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Thora — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Thora with classmates?
- Thora will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Thora
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thora? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Thora and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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