Girl · Ancient Greek
Dorothy
Say it: DOR-uh-thee
Meaning
Greek Dōrothea, 'gift of God' (dōron 'gift' and theos 'god').
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Common in England from the 16th century and very popular in the United States in the 1920s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1920s
In the United States
- 1,112,446 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1923, about 1 in 31 girls
- 559 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianEnglishGermanPolishHungarianSpanishAmericanGreek
The family of the name
Other spellings: Dorothea, Dorathy, Dorthy
| French | Dorothée |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Dorotea |
| Italian | Dorotea |
| Portuguese | Doroteia |
| German | Dorothea |
| Polish | Dorota |
| Hungarian | Dorottya |
| Russian | Dorofeya |
Famous bearers
- Dorothea of Caesarea, martyr of about 311
- Dorothy Day, American Catholic activist
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- Parish baptism registers
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Well-known works of literature
- 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.