Dorothy · Shortlist Together

Meaning

We don’t have a verified meaning for Dorothy.

We only publish meanings we can cite to a source you could check yourself. Most sites will give you one anyway; the ones you find elsewhere are often copied between sites without verification.

Its story

Popularity since 1894

Hover over or drag across the chart to see any year.

Per million boys born. Years with fewer than five births are not in the record, so the line breaks rather than dropping to zero.

See the 81 recorded years as a table

Dorothy, per million boys born. Years absent from the table had fewer than five births.
Year	Per million
1894	60
1895	43
1897	53
1899	75
1900	53
1902	57
1903	59
1904	133
1905	83
1906	150
1907	143
1908	123
1909	159
1910	124
1911	137
1912	98
1913	84
1914	61
1915	52
1916	81
1917	65
1918	58
1919	67
1920	71
1921	79
1922	61
1923	84
1924	89
1925	89
1926	107
1927	110
1928	110
1929	110
1930	139
1931	136
1932	107
1933	118
1934	112
1935	116
1936	97
1937	68
1938	89
1939	66
1940	73
1941	59
1942	45
1943	46
1944	34
1945	39
1946	26
1947	17
1948	14
1949	15
1950	16
1951	16
1952	13
1953	10
1954	11
1955	15
1956	10
1957	13
1958	9
1959	7
1960	10
1961	6
1962	8
1963	5
1964	6
1965	7
1966	7
1967	7
1968	6
1969	7
1970	3
1972	4
1973	4
1975	3
1981	3
1983	3
1985	3
1989	3

Where it’s loved

Most popular in these states

Dorothy isn’t concentrated in any one state. Either it’s spread evenly, or no state reaches the 25 births over three years needed before a rate means anything.

More like it

More like Dorothy

The numbers

Every figure

Births in 1989: 6
Rank in 1989: #6,941
How rare: 1 in 333,488 boys
Since 1894: 3,677

Dorothy was last recorded in 1989. Fewer than five boys have been given the name in any year since, which is the point below which the record stops reporting.

Most popular in 1909, at 159 per million boys born.

There isn’t enough data for a ten-year trend: Dorothy doesn’t appear in both ends of that window.

Figures from the US Social Security Administration’s 2025 release. How these numbers are made.