Dorothy

Locally spelled Dorothea in DE Germany, ZA South Africa.

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.

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Dorothy, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Edith
• Ethel
• Beatrice
• Gladys
• Edna
• Agnes
• Florence
• Harriet
• Betty
• Barbara
• Gertrude
• Edie

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Dorothy is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, France, Brazil, Argentina

  Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

  Also written Dórothy

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Dórothy

• Polish given name33 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Дороти, Дороті, Doroti, Dorothee, Dorothée

• Hungarian given name4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Hungary, United States, United Kingdom, Finland

  Languages: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Döröthy

62 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Dorothy is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Dorothy är en engelsk form av → Dorotea. Namnet blev populärt genom storfilmen Trollkarlen från Oz (1939) där huvudrollen heter Dorothy.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• Usual English form of DOROTHEA . The name was not used in the Middle Ages, but was taken up in the 16th century and became common thereafter. In Scotland it has been used as an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name Diorbhail , also Anglicized as DEVORGILLA . Short form: Dot. Pet forms: Dottie, Dodie, Dolly .

  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.

• Dorothy Parkerb. 1893USAmerican poet, short story writer, critic and satirist (1893-1967)
• Dorothy L. Sayersb. 1893GBEnglish crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer (1893-1957)
• Dorothy Hodgkinb. 1910GBBritish chemist
• Dorothy Vaughanb. 1910USAfrican-American mathematician
• Dorothy Lamourb. 1914USAmerican actress and singer (1914-1996)
• Dorothy McGuireb. 1916USAmerican actress (1916-2001)
• Dorothy Dandridgeb. 1922USAmerican actress and singer (1922–1965)
• Dorothy Maloneb. 1924USAmerican actress (1924-2018)
• Vivian Maierb. 1926USnot in their usual nameFrench-American photographer (1926–2009)
• Faye Dunawayb. 1941USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress

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).

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.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Dorothy mean, and where does it come from?

A female given name from Ancient Greek. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

Is Dorothy a male or female name?

Dorothy is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), Brazil (IBGE, 2022), Netherlands (Meertens NVB) and Spain (INE), among others.

What are other forms of the name Dorothy?

In the etymology graph, Doreen, Dorothea and Dorota are forms of the same name in other languages; Dolly, Dottie and Dory are recorded short or pet forms.

How do you pronounce Dorothy?

In English /ˈdɑɹ.ə.θi/ (Wiktionary).

How common is the name Dorothy?

In the United States, the national register counted 304,932 people named Dorothy in 2020, about 1 in 1.1 thousand residents.

How common is Dorothy compared with other names?

In the United States, Dorothy is the 88th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.

In which country does Dorothy have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 305 thousand people named Dorothy, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled dorothy.