Dorothy

Where Dorothy comes from

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Δωροθέα (Dōrothéa).
— Wiktionary's entry for Dorothy
  • Ancient Greek
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #139 among girls — 112 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1893
    Dorothy Parker born
    American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
  3. 1910
    Dorothy Hodgkin born
    British chemist
  4. 1924
    Peak, #2
    39,996 babies named Dorothy — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1935
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #6.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Dorothy Hodgkin · British chemist, 1910–1994
  • Dorothy Parker · American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, 1893–1967
  • Dorothy L. Sayers · English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer, 1893–1957
  • Dorothy Malone · American actress, 1924–2018
  • Dorothy Day · American journalist, social activist, and Catholic convert, 1897–1980

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.