Dorothy (given name)

Dorothy is a feminine given name. It is the English vernacular form of the Greek Δωροθέα (Dōrothéa) meaning "God's Gift", from δῶρον (dōron), "gift" + θεός (theós), "god". It has been in use since the 1400s. Although much less common, there are also male equivalents in English such as Dory, from the Greek masculine Δωρόθεος (Dōrótheos). Dorofei is a rarely used Russian male version of the name. The given names Theodore and Theodora are derived from the same two Greek root words as Dorothy, albeit reversed in order.

The name grew in use among Christians due to popular legends surrounding Saint Dorothy of Caeserea. The name was at one time viewed as the English equivalent of the etymologically unrelated Russian name Daria or its diminutive Dasha.

Traditional English diminutives include, among others, Do, Dodi, Dodie, Doe, Doll, Dolley, Dollie, Dolly, Dora, Dori, Dorie, Doro, Dory, Dot, Dottie, Dotty, Tea, Thea, and Tia. Dorothy, with the nickname Doll or Dolly, was quite popular from 1450 to 1570 in England. Dorothy or the variant Dorothea, also with the nicknames Doll or Dolly, was also well used between 1750 and 1820.

There are also many variants of the name in other languages.

Dorothy was a less common variant of Dorothea until it became more common and one of the top 10 most popular names for girls in the United States between 1904 and 1940. The name remained among the top 100 most popular names for American girls until 1961. It briefly left the top 1,000 names for girls in the United States in 2007 but returned in 2011 and has since increased in popularity. In 2022, it ranked 487th among the most used names for newborn girls in the United States, with 642 girls given the name in that year. Variant Dorothea is in occasional use in the United States, where 62 girls were given the name in 2022.

Notable people

 * Dorothy Allison (1949–present), American writer
 * Dorothy Arnold (1885–1910), American socialite who disappeared mysteriously
 * Dorothy Arnold (1917–1984), American actress
 * Dorothy Appleby (1906–1990), American actress
 * Dorothy Bernard (1890–1955), American actress
 * Dorothy Christy/Christie (1906–1977), American actress
 * Dorothy "Dodie" Clark (1995–present), British singer-songwriter and YouTuber
 * Dorothy Coburn (1905–1978), American actress
 * Dorothy Cross (1956–present), Irish artist
 * Dorothy Dalton (1893–1972), American actress
 * Dorothy Dandridge (1922–1965), American actress
 * Dorothy Davenport (1895–1977), American actress
 * Dorothy Davids (1923–2014), American educator, educational services administrator, and a Native American and women's rights activist
 * Dorothy Day (1897–1980), American journalist, social activist
 * Dorothy Dell (1915–1934), American actress
 * Dorothy Devore (1899–1976), American actress
 * Dorothy Dunbar (1902–1992), American actress
 * Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001), Scottish historical novelist
 * Dorothy Dwan (1906–1981), American actress
 * Dorothy Ellis (1935–2018), American singer
 * Dorothy Fletcher (1927–2017), New Zealand historian
 * Dorothy Catherine Fontana (1939–2019), screenplay writer
 * Dorothy Garlock (1919–2018), American author
 * Dorothy Garrod (1892–1968), British archaeologist
 * Dorothy Edna Genders (1892–1978), Australian Anglican deaconess
 * Dorothy Gibson (1889–1946), American actress
 * Dorothy Gish (1898–1968), American actress
 * Dorothy Grant, Haida fashion designer
 * Dorothy Gulliver (1908–1997), American actress
 * Dorothy Hamill (1956–present), American figure skater
 * Dorothy Antoinette Handy (1930–2002), American musician and scholar
 * Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994), British biochemist and winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Dorothy Iannone (1933-2022), American visual artist
 * Dorothy Janis (1912–2010), American actress
 * Dorothy Misener Jurney (1909–2002), American journalist
 * Dorothy Kelly (1894-1966), American actress
 * Dorothy Kilgallen (1913–1965), American journalist and television game show panelist.
 * Dorothy Bush Koch (1959-present), daughter of United States President George H. W. Bush and sister of President George W. Bush
 * Dorothy, Lady Pakington (1623–1679), English writer
 * Dorothy Lawrence (1896–1964), English reporter, secretly posed as a man to become a British soldier during World War I
 * Dorothy Bell Lawrence (1911–1973), New York assemblywoman
 * Dorothy Lamour (1914–1996), American film actress
 * Dorothy Lee (actress) (1911–1999), American actress-comedian
 * Dorothy Leigh (died c. 1616), British writer
 * Dorothy Mabiletsa, South African politician
 * Dorothy Mackaill (1903–1990), British-American actress
 * Dorothy Malone (1924–2018), American actress
 * Dorothy Manley (1927–2021), British sprinter
 * Dorothy Manning (1919–2012), New Zealand artist
 * Dorothy McAulay Martin (born 1937), First Lady of North Carolina
 * Dorothy McGuire (1916-2001), American actress
 * Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger (1975–present), American astronaut
 * Dorothy Miner (1904–1973), American art historian
 * Dorothy Miner (1936–2008), American lawyer
 * Dorothy Moskowitz (1940-present), American singer
 * Dorothy Klenke Nash (1898–1976), American neurosurgeon
 * Dorothy Parker (1893–1967), American satirist and poet
 * Dorothy Phillips (1889-1980), American actress
 * Dorothy Peto (1886–1974), first female police superintendent in the UK
 * Dorothy Revier (1904–1993), American actress
 * Dorothy Robertson (died 1979), New Zealand painter
 * Dorothy H. Rose (1920–2005), New York assemblywoman
 * Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), English writer
 * Dorothy Kuhn Oko (1896–1971), librarian and labor unionist
 * Dorothy Scharf (1942–2004), English philanthropist
 * Dorothy Seastrom (1903–1930), American actress
 * Dorothy Sebastian (1903–1957), American actress
 * Dorothy Squires (1915–1998), Welsh singer
 * Dorothy Stang (1931–2005), Catholic nun of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
 * Dorothy Stanley-Turner (1916–1995), English racing driver
 * Dorothy Sterling (1913–2008), American writer
 * Dorothy Stratten (1960–1980), Canadian Playboy Playmate, model and actress
 * Dorothy Mae Taylor (1928–2000), African-American politician and civil rights activist
 * Dorothy Thompson (1923-2011), British social historian
 * Dorothy Ann Thrupp (1779–1847), English psalmist, hymnwriter, translator
 * Dorothy Vaughan (1910–2008), African American mathematician and human computer who worked for NACA and NASA
 * Dorothy Vest (1919–2013), American tennis player
 * Dorothy Wall (1894–1942), New Zealand-born author
 * Dorothy Wallace, American mathematician
 * Dorothy Wang (1988-present), American television personality
 * Dorothy Grace Waring (1891–1977), English fascist campaigner and novelist
 * Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855), sister of William Wordsworth

Animals

 * Dorofei (2004-2014), the male pet cat of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

Fictional characters

 * Dorothy Gale, the little girl who was blown to the Land of Oz by a cyclone in L. Frank Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the classic 1939 movie adaptation The Wizard of Oz
 * Doll Tearsheet, also referred to as "Mistress Dorothy", a prostitute in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 2
 * Dorothy Zbornak, played by Bea Arthur on the long-running TV sitcom The Golden Girls
 * Dorothy Albright, a character from the video game series Arcana Heart
 * Dorothy, a goldfish owned by Elmo in Sesame Street
 * Dorothy Michaels, alias used by the female impersonator in the 1982 comedy film Tootsie, played by Dustin Hoffman
 * Dorothy Cramp, a character from the animated series The Cramp Twins
 * R. Dorothy Wayneright, female android in the anime series Big O
 * Dot Branning, fictional character on the television show EastEnders
 * Dot, fictional character from the 2005 film The Quiet
 * Dorothy Catalonia, a character from the Gundam Wing anime series
 * Dorothy Williams, a character from the TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
 * Dorothy, a talented archer, with low self esteem from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
 * Dorothy the Dinosaur, a character from The Wiggles
 * Dorothy "Ace" McShane, a companion of the Seventh Doctor from Doctor Who, played by Sophie Aldred
 * Dory, a forgetful, free-spirited blue tang (paracanthurus) who helps find clownfish Marlin's lost son Nemo in the movie Finding Nemo
 * Dorothy Franks, the director of the Rhine Originium Technology Application Section from mobile game Arknights