Dorcas
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A woman who is said, in the Bible, to have been restored to life by Peter
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɗoɾcas/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Dorcas is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country. In Zambia it is the 72nd most common given name.
- KEKenya≈1 in 635(inferred from the name graph)
- NGNigeria≈1 in 1K
- GHGhana≈1 in 2.2K
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.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 221 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 635 (inferred from the name graph)
≈200,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Kenya, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A woman who is said, in the Bible, to have been restored to life by Peter.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Dorcas 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | #428 | ≈200,000 est. | ≈1 in 1K | — | Dorcas | 75 |
| KE Kenya | #79 | ≈84,000 est. | ≈1 in 635 | — | Dorcas | 69 |
| CD Congo - Kinshasa | #106 | ≈62,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | — | Dorcas | 19 |
| TZ Tanzania | #396 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.9K | — | Dorcas | 26 |
| GH Ghana | #100 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.2K | — | Dorcas | 53 |
| ZM Zambia | #72 | ≈5,900 est. | ≈1 in 2.9K | 3 | Dorcas | 23 |
| US United States | — | 5,425 | 1 in 61K | 5.4K | Dorcas | 221 |
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; ECZ 2021 Councillor Elections — candidate results. 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)
Dorcas 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.
In English, Greek, 'gazelle'
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
Domiciana, Domitia, Domitiana, Gacela
as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado
In Portuguese, Dorcas (woman restored to life by Peter)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Latin, An antelope or gazelle.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In grc, Griego Δορκάς, "gacela"; corresponde al arameo Tabita.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
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)
- Dorcas Hoarb. 1634Salem witch trial accusee
- Dorcas Mumfordb. 1750US(1750-1801)
- Catherine Stricklandb. 1825GBnot in their usual nameBritish naturalist and illustrator (1825-1888)
- Dorcas Matthewsb. 1890USEnglish actress (1890–1969)
- Dorcas Cochranb. 1903USAmerican screenwriter and lyricist
- Dorcas Coker-Appiahb. 1946GHGhanaian lawyer
- Dorcas Makgato-Malesub. 1953BWBotswana politician
- Dorcas Muthonib. 1979KEKenyan computer engineer and businesswoman
- Dorcas Shola Fapsonb. 1991GBNigerian actress
- Dorcas Ajoke Adesokanb. 1998NGbadminton 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 58 sources across 33 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 5.4K | #3,730 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 36 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 27 | #3,730 |
| ZM Zambia | ECZ 2021 Councillor Elections — candidate results | 2021 | 3 | #42 |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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 Dorcas mean, and where does it come from?
- A woman who is said, in the Bible, to have been restored to life by Peter. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Dorcas?
- A machine transcription gives /ɗoɾcas/ (IPA) for Swahili.
- Is Dorcas a male or female name?
- Dorcas is a female 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.
- What are other forms of the name Dorcas?
- In the etymology graph, Dorkas is a form of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Dorcas have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 204 thousand people named Dorcas in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled dorcas.
- How common is the name Dorcas?
- In the United States, the national register counted 5,425 people named Dorcas in 2020, about 1 in 61 thousand residents.
- How common is Dorcas compared with other names?
- In Nigeria, Dorcas is the 428th most common given name of 138,191 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Dorcas?
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/dorcasThe 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, “Dorcas” — the 428th most common given name in Nigeria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.