Dorla
A feminine given name of uncertain origin and meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 303 living Americans carry the first name Dorla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dorla today is around 76 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dorla births was 1930 (171 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dorla. 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 Dorla is about 76 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Dorlas were born before 1960.
People living today
303
~ 1 in 1,131,202 Americans
Peak year
1930
171 babies that year
Average age
76
years old
1970 SSA rank
#8,325
Tracked since 1923
Census
Dorla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 668 people with the first name Dorla, which placed it at #16,760 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
#16,760
National first-name rank
People counted
668
668 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dorla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dorla is White at 72.6%. The next largest groups are Black (17.2%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Dorla 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 Dorla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.6% · 485
- Black or African American17.2% · 115
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 13
- Two or more races1.5% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 4
Popularity
Dorla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dorla from the 1920s through to the 1970s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 590 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dorla 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 Dorla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dorlas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Dorla, while South Dakota, Idaho, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dorla
The name Dorla originated from the Old English language, traced back to the 9th century AD. It is derived from the Old English word "dor," meaning "beloved" or "dear one." The name was prevalent in Anglo-Saxon England and was often used as a feminine form of the masculine name Dorlac.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dorla can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholdings commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions a woman named Dorla who held land in the county of Norfolk.
In the 12th century, a nun named Dorla of Winchester was known for her dedication to religious life and her contributions to the local community. She lived at the Nunnaminster (Nunna's monastery) in Winchester, England, and was renowned for her charitable works.
During the Middle Ages, the name Dorla gained popularity among the noble classes in England. One notable bearer of the name was Dorla de Montfort, a noblewoman from the powerful Montfort family who lived in the 13th century. She was known for her involvement in the political affairs of her time.
In the 16th century, a woman named Dorla Swinburn was recorded as one of the earliest settlers in the British colony of Virginia. She arrived in Jamestown in 1609 and is believed to have been among the first English women to establish a permanent settlement in North America.
Another notable figure with the name Dorla was Dorla Hawker, an English author and poet who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She published several works of poetry and was known for her romantic and naturalistic themes.
People
Dorla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dorla 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
Dorla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dorla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 303 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dorla 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 1,131,202 US residents.
Is Dorla a common name?
We classify Dorla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,089 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dorla most popular?
The single biggest year for Dorla was 1930, when 171 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dorla is about 76 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dorla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 668 people with the name Dorla, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,760 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 Dorla 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 Dorla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dorla appears almost entirely female. Of the 662 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Dorla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dorla is White at 72.6%. The next largest groups are Black (17.2%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Dorla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dorla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.6% (485 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 Dorla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dorla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dorla 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 Dorla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dorla 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 Dorla 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 the name Dorla?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.