Girl · Greek, through English pet forms
Dolly
Say it: DOL-ee
Meaning
Pet form of Dorothy, from Greek doron 'gift' and theos 'god'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
A common 18th-century pet name, used as a given name in its own right.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1900s
In the United States
- 20,065 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1908, about 1 in 2,700 girls
- 60 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Dolley
Famous bearers
- Dolley Madison, American First Lady
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Colonial records of the Americas
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.