Dorothea
Meaning
gift of God
Famously borne by Dorothea Lange, whose photograph Migrant Mother became a Depression-era icon.
Dorothea's name family
One shared root links 4 names across 2 languages.
Shared root: from Greek Dorothea "gift of God"; the same elements as Theodora, stacked the other way around
The constellation
More branches
Dorothea in song
dorothea
Taylor Swift (2020)
evermore's small-town girl who left for Hollywood, sung by the person back home who still wonders about her.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Dorothea peaked in the 1900s and the 1920s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
203 people · the #25,129 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 72
Among people named Dorothea living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1930s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Dorothea
People given the name Dorothea in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1940 to 1979. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Dorothea deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Dorothea truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Dorothea fits with your family’s names and surname.
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