Theodora
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Feminine form of Theodore, borne most notably by a 9th-century empress of Byzantium, the wife of Theophilus the Iconoclast
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Theodora is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country.
- NLNetherlands1 in 179(measured from records)
- RORomania≈1 in 884as Teodora
- PEPeru≈1 in 1.2Kas Teodora
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Theodora itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Netherlands (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 339 (measured from records)
- 1 in 179 (inferred from the name graph)
96,312 people
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Teodora in PE Peru, PH Philippines, NI Nicaragua and 2 more.
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)
Feminine form of Theodore, borne most notably by a 9th-century empress of Byzantium, the wife of Theophilus the Iconoclast. It has frequently been used as an English given name. It means ‘gift of God’; the elements are the same as those of Dorothea, but in reverse order.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Theodora 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | — | 96,312 | 1 in 179 | 96K | Theodora | 49 |
| PH Philippines | #957 | ≈38,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.9K | — | Teodora | 57 |
| PE Peru | #258 | ≈26,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Teodora | 39 |
| RO Romania | #148 | ≈24,000 est. | ≈1 in 884 | — | Teodora | 109 |
| RS Serbia | #361 | ≈8,600 est. | ≈1 in 811 | — | Teodora | 20 |
| NI Nicaragua | #134 | ≈4,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | — | Teodora | 7 |
| CY Cyprus | #312 | 2,090as Θεοδωρα | 1 in 606 | 2.1K | Theodora | 47 |
96,312 people counted by Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018). 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: Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); CYSTAT — Name frequency (2011 Population Census). 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)
Theodora 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, A female given name from Ancient Greek, most famously borne by two empresses of Byzantium.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swedish, Theodora är en femininform till → Theodor (jfr → Dorotea). Kejsarinnan Theodora (ca 500–548) i det bysantinska riket är ett känt helgon i den ortodoxa kyrkan. I den rikssvenska almanackan 9 november.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
In English, Byzantine empress; pers. name
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In French, Variante de Théodora, du grec theodoros, « don de Dieu ».
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In French, Origine grecque, « don de Dieu ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
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)
- Theodorab. 500TRByzantine empress from 527 to 548
- Theodorab. 815TR9th-century Byzantine empress, wife of Theophilos
- Theodora Porphyrogenitab. 984TRByzantine empress regnant (984-1056)
- Theodora Komnenab. 1132TRDuchess consort of Austria
- Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmarkb. 1906GRGreco-Danish princess (1906-1969); sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
- Theadora Van Runkleb. 1928USnot in their usual nameAmerican fashion and costume designer (1928-2011)
- Dora Bakoyannisb. 1954GRnot in their usual nameGreek politician 1954-
- Anna Chancellorb. 1965GBnot in their usual nameEnglish actress
- Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmarkb. 1983GBDanish-Greek princess (born 1983)
- Amelia Windsorb. 1995GBnot in their usual namenoblewoman; English fashion model; youngest child of George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, and Sylvana Windsor, Countess of St Andrews
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 82 sources across 45 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 96K | #16 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 26K | #97 |
Reference works 5
- 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)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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
- Where does the name Theodora come from?
- Feminine form of Theodore, borne most notably by a 9th-century empress of Byzantium, the wife of Theophilus the Iconoclast. It has frequently been used as an English given name. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- What are other forms of the name Theodora?
- In the etymology graph, Dora, Teodora and Dorothea are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Theodora a male or female name?
- Theodora 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 does the name Theodora mean?
- Recorded meaning: Feminine form of Theodore, borne most notably by a 9th-century empress of Byzantium, the wife of Theophilus the Iconoclast.
- In which country does Theodora have the most bearers?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 96 thousand people named Theodora, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled theodora.
- Where is Theodora most common?
- Theodora is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 179 people carrying it.
- How common is the name Theodora?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 96,312 people named Theodora, about 1 in 179 residents.
- How common is Theodora compared with other names?
- In Nicaragua, Theodora is the 134th most common given name of 16,569 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Theodora?
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/theodoraThe 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, “Theodora” — the 134th most common given name in Nicaragua. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.