Doreatha
A feminine name of unknown origin potentially relating to "door" or "gift".
Name Census estimates that about 471 living Americans carry the first name Doreatha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Doreatha today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Doreatha births was 1928 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Doreatha. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Doreatha is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Doreathas were born before 1966.
People living today
471
~ 1 in 727,716 Americans
Peak year
1928
36 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1988 SSA rank
#10,732
Tracked since 1905
Census
Doreatha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 529 people with the first name Doreatha, which placed it at #19,808 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#19,808
National first-name rank
People counted
529
529 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
87.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Doreatha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doreatha is Black at 87.5%. The next largest groups are White (8.9%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Doreatha described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Doreatha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American87.5% · 463
- White8.9% · 47
- Two or more races2.6% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Popularity
Doreatha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Doreatha from the 1900s through to the 1980s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 253 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Doreatha by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Doreatha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Doreathas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Doreatha, while Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Doreatha
The name Doreatha is a feminine given name of Greek origin. It is derived from the Greek name "Dorothea," which means "gift of God." The name Doreatha is a variation of Dorothea and is thought to have emerged in the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance period.
In ancient Greek mythology, Dorothea was one of the nine muses, specifically the muse of comedy and pastoral poetry. The name Dorothea was also associated with several early Christian saints and martyrs, including Saint Dorothea of Caesarea, who was tortured and executed for her faith in the 4th century AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Doreatha can be found in the records of the Duchy of Burgundy in the late 15th century. A noblewoman named Doreatha de Montbéliard was mentioned in a document dated around 1480.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Doreatha. One of the most famous was Doreatha Quarles (1890-1982), an American educator and civil rights activist who worked tirelessly to improve educational opportunities for African American children in the segregated South.
Another notable Doreatha was Doreatha Benton (1920-2010), a Canadian artist and author who was known for her vivid paintings of landscapes and her children's books. Doreatha Towne (1930-2018) was a prominent American actress and theater director who co-founded the Tony Award-winning Repertory Theater of St. Louis.
In the field of literature, Doreatha Drummond (1892-1978) was an American journalist and author who wrote several novels and short stories exploring the experiences of African American women in the early 20th century. Doreatha Muir (1923-2008) was a Scottish novelist and poet whose works often drew inspiration from her Highland heritage.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals with the name Doreatha throughout history. While the name has its roots in ancient Greek culture and mythology, it has been carried on and celebrated by remarkable women from diverse backgrounds over the centuries.
People
Doreatha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Doreatha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Doreatha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Doreatha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 471 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Doreatha going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 727,716 US residents.
Is Doreatha a common name?
We classify Doreatha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,238 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Doreatha most popular?
The single biggest year for Doreatha was 1928, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Doreatha is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Doreatha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 529 people with the name Doreatha, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,808 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Doreatha in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Doreatha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doreatha appears almost entirely female. Of the 527 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Doreatha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doreatha is Black at 87.5%. The next largest groups are White (8.9%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Doreatha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Doreatha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.5% (463 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Doreatha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Doreatha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Doreatha in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Doreatha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Doreatha in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Doreatha can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Doreatha as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.