Dorthea
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "Gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,074 living Americans carry the first name Dorthea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dorthea today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dorthea births was 1921 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dorthea. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 319,138 Americans
Peak year
1921
69 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,870
Tracked since 1882
Census
Dorthea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,311 people with the first name Dorthea, which placed it at #10,252 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,252
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,311 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dorthea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dorthea is White at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Black (35.3%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dorthea described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dorthea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.4% · 740
- Black or African American35.3% · 463
- Two or more races3.8% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 6
Popularity
Dorthea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dorthea from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 485 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dorthea by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dorthea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dortheas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas recorded the most babies named Dorthea, while Maryland, New York, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dorthea
The name Dorthea has its roots in the Greek language and can be traced back to the 3rd century BC. It is derived from the Greek words "doron" meaning gift and "theos" meaning god, essentially translating to "gift of God." This name gained popularity during the early days of Christianity and was initially used by Greek-speaking communities.
In the 4th century AD, the name Dorthea was mentioned in various religious texts and martyrologies, which documented the lives of early Christian martyrs. One of the most notable references is found in the Acts of the Martyrs, which tells the story of a young woman named Dorthea who faced persecution and martyrdom for her Christian faith during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
The name Dorthea remained prevalent throughout the Byzantine Empire and later spread to other parts of Europe through the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church. During the Middle Ages, variations of the name, such as Dorothy and Dorothea, became common in regions like Germany, England, and France.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dorthea can be found in the 9th century, when a nun named Dorthea lived in the Benedictine abbey of Gandersheim in present-day Germany. Another notable bearer of the name was Dorthea of Montau (1347-1394), a Polish religious mystic and visionary who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Dorthea. These include Dorthea of Brandenburg (1420-1491), a German princess and duchess; Dorthea of Denmark (1504-1547), a Danish princess who served as the Electress of Saxony; and Dorthea Erxleben (1715-1762), the first female physician to receive a medical doctorate in Germany.
In literature, the name Dorthea has been used by authors such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" (1795-1796), where one of the main characters is named Dorthea. Additionally, the English author Charles Dickens featured a character named Dorthea in his novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1870).
People
Dorthea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dorthea as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dorthea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dorthea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,074 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dorthea going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 319,138 US residents.
Is Dorthea a common name?
We classify Dorthea as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,430 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dorthea most popular?
The single biggest year for Dorthea was 1921, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dorthea is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dorthea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,311 people with the name Dorthea, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,252 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dorthea in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dorthea?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dorthea appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,310 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dorthea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dorthea is White at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Black (35.3%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dorthea most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dorthea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.4% (740 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dorthea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dorthea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dorthea in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dorthea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dorthea in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dorthea can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Dorthea?
Find out how many people share the name Dorthea on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.