Dorthea
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "Gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,074 living Americans carry the first name Dorthea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dorthea today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dorthea births was 1921 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dorthea. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 319,138 Americans
Peak year
1921
69 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,870
Tracked since 1882
Popularity
Dorthea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dorthea 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 485 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
Dorthea 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 Dorthea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dortheas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas recorded the most babies named Dorthea, while Maryland, New York, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dorthea
The name Dorthea has its roots in the Greek language and can be traced back to the 3rd century BC. It is derived from the Greek words "doron" meaning gift and "theos" meaning god, essentially translating to "gift of God." This name gained popularity during the early days of Christianity and was initially used by Greek-speaking communities.
In the 4th century AD, the name Dorthea was mentioned in various religious texts and martyrologies, which documented the lives of early Christian martyrs. One of the most notable references is found in the Acts of the Martyrs, which tells the story of a young woman named Dorthea who faced persecution and martyrdom for her Christian faith during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
The name Dorthea remained prevalent throughout the Byzantine Empire and later spread to other parts of Europe through the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church. During the Middle Ages, variations of the name, such as Dorothy and Dorothea, became common in regions like Germany, England, and France.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dorthea can be found in the 9th century, when a nun named Dorthea lived in the Benedictine abbey of Gandersheim in present-day Germany. Another notable bearer of the name was Dorthea of Montau (1347-1394), a Polish religious mystic and visionary who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Dorthea. These include Dorthea of Brandenburg (1420-1491), a German princess and duchess; Dorthea of Denmark (1504-1547), a Danish princess who served as the Electress of Saxony; and Dorthea Erxleben (1715-1762), the first female physician to receive a medical doctorate in Germany.
In literature, the name Dorthea has been used by authors such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" (1795-1796), where one of the main characters is named Dorthea. Additionally, the English author Charles Dickens featured a character named Dorthea in his novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1870).
People
Dorthea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dorthea 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
Dorthea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dorthea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,074 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dorthea 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 319,138 US residents.
Is Dorthea a common name?
We classify Dorthea as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,430 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dorthea most popular?
The single biggest year for Dorthea was 1921, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dorthea is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Dorthea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dorthea 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.
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.