Theodore
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from the French male personal name Theodore, from Greek Theodōros ‘gift of god’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈθiəˌdɔɹ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Theodore is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Jamaica it is the 22nd most common given name.
- JMJamaica≈1 in 1.6K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 2.4K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 2.8K
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 Theodore 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.
- United States (measured from records)
- #842 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 533 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.6K (inferred from the name graph)
141,175 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Jamaica, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Theodor in DE Germany, NO Norway, SE Sweden, Theodorus in NL Netherlands and Theodoros in CY Cyprus.
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)
from the French male personal name Theodore, from Greek Theodōros ‘gift of god’
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Theodore 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #342 | 141,175 | 1 in 2.4K | 141K | Theodore | 533 |
| NL Netherlands | #568 | 131,561as Theodorus | 1 in 131 | 131K | Theodorus | 80 |
| DE Germany | #374 | ≈28,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.9K | — | Theodor | 160 |
| GB United Kingdom | #425 | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.8K | 2.8K | Theodore | 202 |
| IT Italy | #692 | ≈16,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.9K | 10 | Theodore | 38 |
| SE Sweden | #992 | 12,377as Theodor | 1 in 824 | 12K | Theodor | 54 |
| NO Norway | — | 5,460as Theodor | 1 in 1K | 20K | Theodor | 33 |
| DK Denmark | — | 4,020as Theodor | 1 in 1.5K | 4K | Theodore | 32 |
| CY Cyprus | #143 | 2,672as Θεοδωρος | 1 in 474 | 2.7K | Theodoros | 71 |
| JM Jamaica | #22 | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | — | Theodore | 12 |
141,175 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. 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; Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024); SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); 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)
Theodore 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.
From the French form of the Greek name Theodoros, derived from theos ‘god’ + doron ‘gift’. The name was popular among early Christians and was borne by several saints. Short forms: Theo, Ted. Pet form: Teddy.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A male given name from Latin and Ancient Greek; the name of a saint, pope, several emperors, etc.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, Origine grecque, « don de Dieu ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, Greek; gift of 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: from the French form of the Greek name Theod ros , composed of the elements theos god + d ron gift. The name was popular among early Christians and was borne by several saints. Cognates: French: Théodore. German: Theodor. Dutch: Theodoor. Hungarian: Tivadar. Russian: Fyodor. Jewish (Aramaic): Todos. Short forms: English: Theo, Ted .
as a word
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)
- Théodore Géricaultb. 1791FRFrench painter (1791–1824)
- Théodore Rousseaub. 1812FRFrench painter (1812–1867)
- Theodore Rooseveltb. 1858US26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909 (1858–1919)
- Theodore William Richardsb. 1868USUnited States chemist (1868–1928)
- Spiro Agnewb. 1918USnot in their usual namevice president of the United States from 1969 to 1973
- Albert II of Belgiumb. 1934BEnot in their usual namesixth king of the Belgians
- Theodore Kaczynskib. 1942USAmerican domestic, mathematician and anarchist (1942–2023)
- Ted Bundyb. 1946USnot in their usual nameAmerican serial killer (1946–1989)
- Ted Levineb. 1957USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1957)
- Tim Duncanb. 1976USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player (born 1976)
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 118 sources across 65 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 141K | #400 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 13K | — |
| GB United Kingdom | ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024) | 2024 | 2.8K | #8 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 2.1K | #1,014 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 1.1K | — |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 432 | #2,772 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 236 | #791 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 233 | #400 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 108 | #36 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2025 | 49 | #40 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 37 | #13,994 |
Reference works 6
- 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
- Wikipedia surname 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 are other forms of the name Theodore?
- In the etymology graph, Teodoro, Bohdan and Bogdan are forms of the same name in other languages; Ted, Theo and Teddy are recorded short or pet forms.
- What does the name Theodore mean, and where does it come from?
- from the French male personal name Theodore, from Greek Theodōros ‘gift of god’ Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- Is Theodore a male or female name?
- Theodore 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.
- How common is the name Theodore?
- In the United States, the national register counted 141,175 people named Theodore in 2020, about 1 in 2.4 thousand residents.
- How common is Theodore compared with other names?
- In the United States, Theodore is the 342nd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- In which country does Theodore have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 141 thousand people named Theodore, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled theodore.
- How do you pronounce Theodore?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈθiəˌdɔɹ/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Theodore?
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/theodoreThe 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, “Theodore” — the 342nd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.