Dotty

Where Dotty comes from

The dictionaries list Dotty as a given name — a diminutive of the female given name Dorothy, also spelled Dottie — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1909
    First appearance
    #2,208 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1938
    Dotty Attie born
    American painter and printmaker
  3. 1939
    Peak, #987
    51 babies named Dotty — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1945
    Dotty Fothergill born
    American ten-pin bowler
  5. 1949
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,967.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given name Dorothy, also spelled Dottie.
Namesakes
  • Dotty Attie · American painter and printmaker, born 1938
  • Dotty Fothergill · American ten-pin bowler, 1945–2025

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.