Timothy
given name · Latin script
Meaning: (i) from the biblical male personal name Timothy, from Greek Timotheos 'honour god'; (ii) a name substituted for Tomelty
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/tɪməθi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Timothy is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Singapore it is the 31st most common given name.
- CNChina≈1 in 309(inferred from the name graph)
- IEIreland≈1 in 325
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 347
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #133 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 650 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 309 (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,500,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
(i) from the biblical male personal name Timothy, from Greek Timotheos 'honour god'; (ii) a name substituted for Tomelty.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Timothy counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈4,500,000 est. | ≈1 in 309 | — | Timothy | 69 |
| US United States | #54 | 802,946 | 1 in 414 | 802K | Timothy | 650 |
| NG Nigeria | #164 | ≈230,000 est. | ≈1 in 946 | — | Timothy | 126 |
| GB United Kingdom | #71 | ≈180,000 est. | ≈1 in 365 | 7 | Timothy | 354 |
| EG Egypt | #497 | ≈90,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Timothy | 41 |
| IE Ireland | #46 | ≈16,000 est. | ≈1 in 325 | — | Timothy | 110 |
| NZ New Zealand | #62 | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 347 | 22 | Timothy | 153 |
| SG Singapore | #31 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 470 | — | Timothy | 146 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Timothy is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name Timothy is of Greek origin, meaning "honoring God." It is a classic biblical name associated with loyalty, faith, and youthful dedication, borne by the trusted companion of the Apostle Paul.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Timothy comes from the Greek name Τιμόθεος (Timotheos), which means "honouring God" or "honoured by God".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Greek for “honour God”; borne by an early Greek musician of Alexander the Great.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, Greek/Hebrew: honouring God or honoured by God.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
English form of the Greek name Timotheos, from timé ‘honour’ + theos ‘god’. This was the name of a companion of St Paul; according to tradition, he was stoned to death for denouncing the worship of Diana. It was not used in England before the Reformation. Short form: Tim. Pet form: Timmy.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Timothy Spallb. 1957GBEnglish actor
- Tim Kaineb. 1958USnot in their usual nameAmerican lawyer and politician (born 1958)
- Tim Cookb. 1960USnot in their usual nameAmerican business executive, Apple CEO
- George Clooneyb. 1961USnot in their usual nameAmerican-French actor and filmmaker (born 1961)
- Tim Walzb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician (born 1964)
- Tim Duncanb. 1976USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player (born 1976)
- Benedict Cumberbatchb. 1976GBnot in their usual nameEnglish actor (born 1976)
- Tim Cahillb. 1979AUnot in their usual nameAustralian association football player
- Tim Howardb. 1979USnot in their usual nameAmerican soccer player (born 1979)
- Landon Donovanb. 1982USnot in their usual nameAmerican soccer player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 106 sources across 52 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 802K | #38 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 1.7K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 727 | #38 |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2025 | 22 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2025 | 7 | #253 |
Reference works 5
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Timothy mean, and where does it come from?
- (i) from the biblical male personal name Timothy, from Greek Timotheos 'honour god'; (ii) a name substituted for Tomelty. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Timothy?
- In the etymology graph, Timoteo, Tymofii and Timothée are forms of the same name in other languages; Tim and Timmy are recorded short or pet forms.
- Is Timothy a male or female name?
- Timothy is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Timothy have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.5 million people named Timothy in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled timothy.
- How do you pronounce Timothy?
- A machine transcription gives /tɪməθi/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Timothy?
- In the United States, the national register counted 802,946 people named Timothy in 2020, about 1 in 414 residents.
- How common is Timothy compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Timothy is the 31st most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Timothy?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/timothyThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Timothy” — the 31st most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.