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Dorthea

#12,243 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Dorothy

Dorthea has been given to 2,437 babies in the U.S. since 1882. In 2025 it ranked #12,243 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1921, with 69 recorded.

Babies named Dorthea, 2025

1 in 474,000

Dorthea over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Dorthea: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Dorothy

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Dorthea means

Dorthea is a form of Dorothy.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Dorthea is used in Danish and Norwegian.

Origin, language, and formation

Dorthea is used in Danish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Dorothy.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,437 girls were recorded with the name Dorthea between 1882 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 69 in 1921; its best national rank was #648 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #15,753 in 2020 to #12,243 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Dorthea?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 230,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#12,243
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Dorthea sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Dorthea. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Dortheas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Dorthea was born before 1945 — so the typical Dorthea is around 80 today.

Median birth year
1945
About 80 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.1%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,140
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.9% of all recorded uses (485).

Is Dorthea rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+3,675
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+3,510
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
10.1%
Peak was 1921 (69)
Years since peak
104
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#648
1884

Spellings of Dorthea

Dorthea is not the most common spelling — Dorothea is, with 41.8% against Dorthea's 3.0%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Dorthea is used

Across 1910–2025, Dorthea was most concentrated in Missouri — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 299,705 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Missouri1 in 100,000
  2. 2Ohio1 in 100,000
  3. 3Oklahoma1 in 100,000
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Indiana1 in —
  8. 8Maryland1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Dorthea has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Dorthea around the world

Where Dorthea ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #424
    in 2025

Popularity data from Statistics Norway. SSB data under CC BY 4.0.

Dorthea in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Dorthea. Linked forms have their own page here.

DoroteaDorotheaDorteDoroteja

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Dorthea by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#12,243
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 3,510
Best rank ever
#648
1884
Peak year
1921
69 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,437
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Dorthea

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

DoretheaDoratheaDorotheaDorettaDorianDorathyDorinaDortheyDorcasDorothaDorindaAletheaDoriaDorineDorethaDorotheDoreathaDorleneDorotheyDoraleeDorendaDorthyDoriDorrie

Names with a curve like Dorthea

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Dorthea, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

BernettaCelestaRoyMelvinLauretteMauriceAlbertOneidaDeloraSantaMarcelleGlenn

Sibling names for Dorthea

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Dorthea

Top names of 1921, Dorthea's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Girls' names starting with DDanish Girl NamesDanish Names