# 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 2023, it ranked 466th among the most used names for newborn girls in the United States, with 658 girls given the name in that year. Variant Dorothea is in occasional use in the United States, where 61 girls were given the name in 2023.

## Notable people
### Arts

* Dorothy Allison (1949–2024), American writer
* Dorothy Annan (1900–1983), Brazilian-British painter, potter and muralist
* Dorothy Arnold (1917–1984), American actress
* Dorothy Appleby (1906–1990), American actress
* Dorothy Bernard (1890–1955), American actress
* Dorothy Bowers (1902–1948), British writer
* Dorothy Christy/Christie (1906–1977), American actress
* Dorothy "Dodie" Clark (born 1995), British singer-songwriter and YouTuber
* Dorothy Coburn (1905–1978), American actress
* Dorothy Dalton (1893–1972), American actress
* Dorothy Dandridge (1922–1965), American actress
* Dorothy Davenport (1895–1977), American actress
* 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 Elias-Fahn, American voice actress
* Dorothy Catherine Fontana (1939–2019), screenplay writer
* Dorothy Garlock (1919–2018), American author
* Dorothy Gibson (1889–1946), American actress
* Dorothy Gish (1898–1968), American actress
* Dorothy Grant, Haida fashion designer
* Dorothy Gulliver (1908–1997), American actress
* Dorothy Antoinette Handy (1930–2002), American musician and scholar
* Dorothy Iannone (1933–2022), American visual artist
* Dorothy Janis (1912–2010), American actress
* Dorothy Misener Jurney (1909–2002), American journalist
* Dorothy Khadem-Missagh (born 1992), Austrian pianist and conductor
* Dorothy Kelly (1894–1966), American actress
* Dorothy Kilgallen (1913–1965), American journalist and television game show panelist
* Dorothy, Lady Pakington (1623–1679), English writer
* Dorothy Lamour (1914–1996), American film actress
* Dorothy Lee (actress) (1911–1999), American actress-comedian
* Dorothy Leigh (died c. 1616), British writer
* Dorothy Mackaill (1903–1990), British-American actress
* Dorothy Malone (1924–2018), American actress
* Dorothy Manning (1919–2012), New Zealand artist
* Dorothy McGuire (1916–2001), American actress
* Dorothy Miner (1904–1973), American art historian
* Dorothy Moskowitz (born 1940), American singer
* Dorothy Parker (1893–1967), American satirist and poet
* Dorothy Phillips (1889–1980), American actress
* Dorothy Revier (1904–1993), American actress
* Dorothy Robertson (died 1979), New Zealand painter
* Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), English writer
* Dorothy Seastrom (1903–1930), American actress
* Dorothy Sebastian (1903–1957), American actress
* Dorothy Squires (1915–1998), Welsh singer
* Dorothy Sterling (1913–2008), American writer
* Dorothy Stratten (1960–1980), Canadian Playboy Playmate, model and actress
* Dorothy Wall (1894–1942), New Zealand-born author
* Dorothy Wang (born 1988), American television personality
* Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855), English author, poet and sister of William Wordsworth

### Nobility and royalty

* Dorothy Bentinck (1750–1794), British noblewoman and Duchess of Portland
* Dorothy Boyle (1699–1758), English noblewoman and Countess of Burlington and Countess of Cork
* Dorothy Montagu (c. 1716/17–1797), British noblewoman and Countess of Sandwich
* Dorothy Percy (1564–1619), English noblewoman and Countess of Northumberland
* Dorothy Savile (1640–1670), English noblewoman and Viscountess Halifax
* Dorothy Sidney (1598–1659), English noblewoman and Countess of Leicester
* Dorothy Spencer (1617–1684), English noblewoman and Countess of Sunderland
* Dorothy Wellesley (1889–1956), British noblewoman and Duchess of Wellington
* Dorothy Wood (1885–1976), British noblewoman and Countess of Halifax

### Politics and activism

* Dorothy Hamilton Brush (1894–1968), American birth control advocate, women's rights advocate and author
* Dorothy Cotton (1930–2018), American civil rights activist
* Dorothy Davids (1923–2014), American educator, educational services administrator, and a Native American and women's rights activist
* Dorothy Day (1897–1980), American journalist and social activist
* Dorothy Fraser (1926–2015), New Zealand community activist and local politician
* Dorothy Height (1912–2010), African-American civil rights and women's rights activist
* Dorothy Kuya (1932–2013), British communist and anti-racist activist
* Dorothy Bell Lawrence (1911–1973), New York assemblywoman
* Dorothy Lawson (1580–1632), English recusant and Catholic priest harbourer
* Dorothy Mabiletsa, South African politician
* Dorothy McAulay Martin (born 1937), First Lady of North Carolina
* Dorothy Kuhn Oko (1896–1971), librarian and labor unionist
* Dorothy H. Rose (1920–2005), New York assemblywoman
* Dorothy Scharf (1942–2004), British philanthropist
* Dorothy Mae Taylor (1928–2000), African-American politician and civil rights activist
* Dorothy Thornhill, Baroness Thornhill (born 1955), British Liberal Democrats politician and the first directly elected mayor of Watford, Hertfordshire
* Dorothy von Beroldingen (1915–1999), American lawyer, judge, and political figure
* Dorothy Grace Waring (1891–1977), English fascist campaigner and novelist
* Dorothy Zellner (born 1938), American human rights activist and feminist

### Science

* Dorothy Adlington Cadbury (1892–1987), British botanist and director of confectionery company Cadbury's
* Dorothy Boulding Ferebee (1898–1980), American obstetrician and civil rights activist
* Dorothy Garrod (1892–1968), British archaeologist
* Dorothy Hatfield (1940–2024), British aeronautical engineer
* Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994), British biochemist and winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry
* Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1914–2004), African-American surgeon, teacher and politician
* Dorothy Okello, Ugandan electrical engineer
* Dorothy Otnow Lewis, American psychiatrist
* Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger (1975–present), American astronaut
* Dorothy Klenke Nash (1898–1976), American neurosurgeon
* Dorothy Olsen (1916–2019), American aircraft pilot and member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II
* Dorothy Amaury Talbot (1871–1916), British plant collector and ethnographer
* Dorothy Vaughan (1910–2008), African American mathematician and human computer who worked for NACA and NASA
* Dorothy Wallace, American mathematician and theorist
* Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, British microbiologist

### Sport

* Dorothy Becker (1900–1989), American surfer and competitive swimmer
* Dorothy Campbell (1883–1945), Scottish golfer
* Dorothy Dermody (1909–2012), Irish fencer
* Dorothy Hamill (born 1956), American figure skater
* Dorothy Kamenshek (1925–2010), American baseball player
* Dorothy Lidstone (born 1938), Canadian archer
* Dorothy Manley (1927–2021), British sprinter
* Dorothy Razzell, British long jumper
* Dorothy Scott (born 1957), Jamaican long jumper
* Dorothy Shirley (born 1939), British higher jumper
* Dorothy Stanley-Turner (1916–1995), British racing driver
* Dorothy Swinyard (born 1951), British discus thrower and shot putter
* Dorothy Tyler-Odam (1920–2014), British high jumper
* Dorothy Vest (1919–2013), American tennis player

### Other

* Dorothy Sears Ainsworth (1894–1976), American physical educator
* Dorothy Arnold (1885–1910), American socialite who disappeared mysteriously
* Dorothy Braxton (1927–2014), the first female journalist from New Zealand to visit Antarctica
* Dorothy Eady (1904–1981), British Egyptologist
* Dorothy Nneka Ede, Nigerian entrepreneur and sports enthusiast
* Dorothy Fletcher (1927–2017), New Zealand historian
* Dorothy Edna Genders (1892–1978), Australian Anglican deaconess
* Dorothy Hayes (disambiguation)
* Dorothy Kazel (1939–1980), American Ursuline religious sister and missionary to El Salvador
* Dorothy Bush Koch (born 1959), daughter of United States President George H. W. Bush and sister of President George W. Bush
* Dorothy Lawrence (1896–1964), English reporter, secretly posed as a man to become a British soldier during World War I
* Dorothy O'Grady (897–1985), the first British woman found guilty of treachery in World War II
* Dorothy Peto (1886–1974), first female police superintendent in the UK
* Dorothy Sciff (1903–1989), American businesswoman who was the owner and publisher of the New York Post
* Dorothy Seymour Mills (1928–2019), American baseball researcher
* Dorothy Miner (1936–2008), American lawyer
* Dorothy Shea, American diplomat
* Dorothy Shea (librarian) (1941–2024), Australian librarian
* Dorothy Stang (1931–2005), Catholic nun of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
* Dorothy Thompson (1923–2011), British social historian
* Dorothy Ann Thrupp (1779–1847), English psalmist, hymnwriter, translator
* Dorothy Ufot, Nigerian lawyer

## Animals

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

## Fictional characters

* Dorothy, a talented archer with low self esteem from the 2002 video game Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
* Dorothy, a wheelchair using senior who resides at the Springfield Retirement Castle in animated sitcom series The Simpsons, first appearing in the episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover"
* Dorothy, a goldfish owned by Elmo in Sesame Street
* Dorothy Albright, a character from the video game series Arcana Heart
* Dorothy Catalonia, a character from the Gundam Wing anime series
* Dorothy Cramp, a character from the 2001 animated series The Cramp Twins
* Dorothy the Dinosaur, a character from Australian children's TV series The Wiggles
* 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
* Dorothy Hayes, character on American television soap opera One Life to Live
* Dorothy Hoyle, character on the British television soap opera Coronation Street
* Dorothy "Ace" McShane, a companion of the Seventh Doctor from Doctor Who, played by Sophie Aldred
* Dorothy Michaels, alias used by the female impersonator in the 1982 comedy film Tootsie, played by Dustin Hoffman
* Dorothy Jane Torkelson, a main character from the Disney Channel show The Torkelsons
* Dorothy Williams, a character from the Australian TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
* Dorothy Zbornak, played by Bea Arthur on the long-running TV sitcom The Golden Girls
* Doll Tearsheet, also referred to as "Mistress Dorothy", a prostitute in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 2
* Dory, a forgetful, free-spirited blue tang (paracanthurus) who helps find clownfish Marlin's lost son Nemo in the movie Finding Nemo
* Dot Branning, character on the British television soap opera EastEnders
* Dot, character from the 2005 film The Quiet
* R. Dorothy Wayneright, female android in the anime series The Big O
* Dorothy Franks, director of the Rhine Originium Technology Application Section from the 2019 mobile game Arknights