Boy · Ancient Greek
Timothy
Say it: TIM-uh-thee
Meaning
Greek Timotheos, 'honouring God' (timē 'honour' and theos 'god').
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Rare before the Reformation, it was taken up by Protestants and used in Ireland for the native name Tadhg.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1960s
In the United States
- 1,079,420 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1967, about 1 in 61 boys
- 1,985 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianAncient GreekEnglishAmericanIrishFrenchRussianGreek
The family of the name
| French | Timothée |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Timoteo |
| Italian | Timoteo |
| Portuguese | Timóteo |
| German | Timotheus |
| Polish | Tymoteusz |
| Russian | Timofey |
| Irish | Timothy |
Famous bearers
- Timothy, companion of Paul
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Ancient Greek inscriptions
- 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.