Dorothy
Dorothy is ranked 431st among girls in 2024 (714 births). Its best rank was 2nd, in 1920–1927.
- Rank in 2024
- #431up 31 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 7140.04% of girls
- Peak year
- 192439,996 births
- Best rank
- #2first in 1920
- Since 1880
- 1,115,156people given the name
The story in the numbers
1,111,479 girls have been named Dorothy in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1924, with 39,996 births — 3.2% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 714 births in 2024, against 39,996 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1927, and the 1920s alone account for 33%. It has spent 140 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 72 of them in the top 100 and 36 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 3,677 boys have also been given it, 0.33% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Dorothy | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 2,088 | |
| 1890s | 10,846 | |
| 1900s | 39,112 | |
| 1910s | 207,475 | |
| 1920s | 368,876 | |
| 1930s | 210,414 | |
| 1940s | 132,255 | |
| 1950s | 74,476 | |
| 1960s | 33,010 | |
| 1970s | 11,665 | |
| 1980s | 7,143 | |
| 1990s | 4,211 | |
| 2000s | 2,717 | |
| 2010s | 3,956 | |
| 2020s | 3,235 |
In 1924, its biggest year
Dorothy was the 2nd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1924 were Mary, Dorothy, Helen, Betty and Margaret. See all of 1924.
Names that rose and fell with Dorothy
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Dorthapeak 1921
- Erlinepeak 1927
- Dorrispeak 1924
- Marjoriepeak 1921
- Alenepeak 1920
- Lorinepeak 1922
- Concettapeak 1924
- Florenepeak 1919
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.