Doretta
A feminine diminutive form of the name Dorothy, meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,216 living Americans carry the first name Doretta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Doretta today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Doretta births was 1953 (107 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Doretta. 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 Doretta is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Dorettas were born before 1969.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 281,870 Americans
Peak year
1953
107 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,867
Tracked since 1888
Census
Doretta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,589 people with the first name Doretta, which placed it at #8,945 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
#8,945
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,589 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Doretta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doretta is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Black (20.0%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Doretta 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 Doretta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.1% · 1,177
- Black or African American20.0% · 318
- Two or more races2.1% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 10
Popularity
Doretta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Doretta from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 741 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Doretta 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 Doretta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dorettas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Doretta, while West Virginia, Missouri, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Doretta
The name Doretta has its origins in the late Latin language, deriving from the masculine name Dorotheus, which itself comes from the Greek words "doron" meaning "gift" and "theos" meaning "god". This Greek compound name can be translated to mean "God's gift". The name Doretta is the feminine diminutive form of this name, arising in Italy during the Medieval period.
The name Doretta was quite popular in Italy during the Middle Ages and Renaissance era. One of the earliest recorded bearers of this name was Doretta d'Andalo, an Italian noblewoman who lived in the 13th century and was known for her piety and charitable works. Another notable Italian figure with this name was Doretta Grillo, a wealthy merchant's wife from Genoa in the 15th century, who commissioned several works of art and architecture.
In the 16th century, Doretta Bachelleri was an Italian painter and engraver from the city of Ferrara, known for her religious artworks. Doretta Laguidi, born in 1605, was an Italian playwright and poet from Florence, whose works were performed in the courts of the Medici family.
The name Doretta also found its way into the English-speaking world, with one of the earliest recorded examples being Doretta Donne, who was born in England in 1614 and was the daughter of the renowned metaphysical poet John Donne. In the 18th century, Doretta Velters was a British composer and singer who performed in London's theaters.
While the name Doretta has been most commonly found in Italy and other parts of Europe, it has also been used in other cultures and languages over time. In the 19th century, Doretta Geminder was a German-American immigrant who settled in Texas and became a prominent figure in the early German community there.
People
Doretta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Doretta 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
Doretta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Doretta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,216 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Doretta 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 281,870 US residents.
Is Doretta a common name?
We classify Doretta as "Rare". It ranks above 91.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,597 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Doretta most popular?
The single biggest year for Doretta was 1953, when 107 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Doretta is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Doretta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,589 people with the name Doretta, or 0.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,945 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 Doretta 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 Doretta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Doretta appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,590 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Doretta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Doretta is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Black (20.0%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Doretta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Doretta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.1% (1,177 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 Doretta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Doretta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Doretta 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 Doretta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Doretta 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 Doretta 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 are named Doretta?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Doretta at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.