Dottie
A diminutive form of Dorothy, derived from the Greek name meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 5,096 living Americans carry the first name Dottie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Dottie today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dottie births was 1943 (278 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dottie. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Dottie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.1K
~ 1 in 67,259 Americans
Peak year
1943
278 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,406
Tracked since 1881
Census
Dottie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,669 people with the first name Dottie, which placed it at #3,609 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
#3,609
National first-name rank
People counted
5.7K
5,669 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dottie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dottie is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Dottie 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 Dottie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.3% · 4,781
- Black or African American8.3% · 473
- Two or more races3.2% · 179
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 137
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 57
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 42
Popularity
Dottie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dottie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 2,265 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dottie 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 Dottie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dotties live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. Texas, West Virginia, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Dottie, while Minnesota, Idaho, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 177 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dottie
The name Dottie is a diminutive form of the name Dorothy, which has its origins in the Greek language. Dorothy is derived from the Greek words "doron" meaning gift and "theos" meaning God, essentially translating to "gift of God." The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in England and other parts of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dorothy can be found in the 13th century, with a record of a woman named Dorothy de Semilly in England. The name also appeared in literature, such as in the 14th-century poem "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, where a character named Dorothy is mentioned.
During the Renaissance period, the name Dorothy gained further recognition and was associated with nobility and royalty. One notable figure was Dorothy Devereaux, Countess of Northumberland, who lived from 1564 to 1619 and was known for her involvement in political affairs during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
In the 17th century, the name Dorothy was particularly popular among Puritans in England and New England. One famous bearer of the name was Dorothy Carey, Lady Monson, who lived from 1608 to 1675 and was a prominent figure in the English Civil War.
The 19th century saw the emergence of several influential women named Dorothy, including Dorothy Wordsworth, the sister of the renowned poet William Wordsworth, who lived from 1771 to 1855 and was a writer and diarist in her own right. Another notable figure was Dorothy Day, an American journalist, social activist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, who lived from 1897 to 1980.
The diminutive form Dottie became more commonly used as a nickname for Dorothy in the 20th century. One famous bearer of the name Dottie was Dorothy Kamenshek, known as Dottie Kamenshek, who lived from 1925 to 2010 and was a legendary player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, serving as inspiration for the film "A League of Their Own."
People
Dottie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dottie 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
Dottie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dottie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,096 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dottie 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 67,259 US residents.
Is Dottie a common name?
We classify Dottie as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,836 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dottie most popular?
The single biggest year for Dottie was 1943, when 278 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dottie is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dottie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,669 people with the name Dottie, or 1.88 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,609 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 Dottie 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 Dottie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dottie appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,675 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Dottie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dottie is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Dottie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dottie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (4,781 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 Dottie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dottie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dottie 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 Dottie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dottie 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 Dottie 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 many people are named Dottie?
Want to know how many Americans are named Dottie? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.