Humanverse

Dorathy vs Dorothy

American parents have registered 1,115,908 Dorothys since 1880, against 1,928 Dorathys. Dorothy is still ahead, with 743 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dorathy against Dorothy, 1880 to 2025 0 12.5k 25k 37.5k 50k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dorathy Dorothy

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Dorothy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1895, when Dorathy had 8 and Dorothy had 1,132.

Side by side

  Dorathy Dorothy
Total US births 1,9281,115,908
Most in one year 8140,097
Babies in 2025 under 5743
Estimated living today 420253,000
Median age today 7676
Peak year 19211924
Best rank 813th girls2nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked421st
First recorded 18951880
Girls / boys 1,928 / 01,112,231 / 3,677

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dorathy and Dorothy.