Dorothy
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 208,282 living Americans carry the first name Dorothy. It sits at #431 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dorothy today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dorothy births was 1924 (40,097 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dorothy. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Dorothy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Dorothy is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 3,677 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Dorothy is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Dorothys were born before 1964.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Dorothy have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
208K
~ 1 in 1,646 Americans
Peak year
1924
40,097 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1989 SSA rank
#431
Tracked since 1880
Census
Dorothy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 304,934 people with the first name Dorothy, which placed it at #166 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
#166
National first-name rank
People counted
305K
304,934 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
101.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dorothy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dorothy is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Black (19.7%) and Hispanic (2.2%). 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 Dorothy 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 Dorothy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.4% · 227,011
- Black or African American19.7% · 60,099
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 6,688
- Two or more races1.8% · 5,536
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 3,874
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,726
Gender
Gender distribution for Dorothy
Out of the 1,115,156 babies given the name Dorothy since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Dorothy as a male name
- Ranked #7,238 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1930 (153 births)
Dorothy as a female name
- Ranked #431 in 2024
- 714 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (39,996 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dorothy appears almost entirely female. Of the 304,932 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Dorothy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dorothy from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 369,880 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
Dorothy 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 Dorothy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 0 | 2,088 | 2,088 |
| 1890s | 26 | 10,846 | 10,872 |
| 1900s | 136 | 39,112 | 39,248 |
| 1910s | 481 | 207,475 | 207,956 |
| 1920s | 1,004 | 368,876 | 369,880 |
| 1930s | 1,106 | 210,414 | 211,520 |
| 1940s | 509 | 132,255 | 132,764 |
| 1950s | 237 | 74,476 | 74,713 |
| 1960s | 132 | 33,010 | 33,142 |
| 1970s | 24 | 11,665 | 11,689 |
| 1980s | 22 | 7,143 | 7,165 |
| 1990s | 0 | 4,211 | 4,211 |
| 2000s | 0 | 2,717 | 2,717 |
| 2010s | 0 | 3,956 | 3,956 |
| 2020s | 0 | 3,235 | 3,235 |
Geography
Where Dorothys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Dorothy, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20,752 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dorothy
The name Dorothy has its origins in the Greek language and dates back to ancient times. It is derived from the Greek words "doron" meaning "gift" and "theos" meaning "god," thus translating to "gift of God." The name was initially a compound word "Dorothea" in Greek before evolving into the shorter form Dorothy.
In ancient Greek mythology, one of the daughters of the sea god Nereus was named Dorothea. This could be one of the earliest references to the name. The name was also borne by several early Christian martyrs, including Saint Dorothy of Caesarea, who was martyred in the 4th century AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
The name Dorothy gained popularity in medieval Europe, particularly in England and France. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name dates back to the 12th century, when a woman named Dorothy de Sempringham founded the Order of Sempringham, a monastic order in England.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Dorothy. One of the most famous was Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855), the sister of the celebrated English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. She was an author and diarist, and her journals provided valuable insights into the lives of the Romantic poets.
Another famous Dorothy was Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), an English crime writer and playwright. She is best known for her series of detective novels featuring the character Lord Peter Wimsey. Her works are considered classics of the golden age of detective fiction.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) was an American writer, poet, and satirist, renowned for her wit and sharp tongue. She was a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, a celebrated group of writers and critics in New York City during the 1920s.
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was an American journalist, social activist, and devout Catholic convert. She co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement, a pacifist movement dedicated to promoting social justice and nonviolence. Her cause for canonization as a saint is currently under consideration by the Catholic Church.
In the realm of popular culture, one of the most iconic Dorothys is the character Dorothy Gale from the classic novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, published in 1900. The character's adventures in the Land of Oz have captivated generations of readers and viewers through numerous adaptations, including the beloved 1939 film starring Judy Garland.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Dorothy
People
Dorothy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dorothy 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
Dorothy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dorothy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 208,282 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dorothy 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 1,646 US residents.
Is Dorothy a common name?
We classify Dorothy as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,115,156 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dorothy most popular?
The single biggest year for Dorothy was 1924, when 40,097 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dorothy is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dorothy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 304,934 people with the name Dorothy, or 100.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #166 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 Dorothy 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 Dorothy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dorothy appears almost entirely female. Of the 304,932 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Dorothy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dorothy is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Black (19.7%) and Hispanic (2.2%). 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 Dorothy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dorothy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.4% (227,011 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 Dorothy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dorothy a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Dorothy 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 Dorothy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dorothy 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 Dorothy 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 share the name Dorothy?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Dorothy, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.