# Dorothea

Dorothea, also spelt Dorothee (German), Dorothée (French), and Dorotea, is a female given name from Greek Δωροθέα (Dōrothéa) meaning "god's gift". In English it is more commonly spelt Dorothy.
People with this name include:

## Aristocracy

* Countess Palatine Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg (1670–1748), Duchess of Parma
* Dorotea Gonzaga (1449–1468), Duchess consort of Milan
* Dorothea, Abbess of Quedlinburg (1591–1617), Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg
* Dorothea Friederike of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1676–1731), last Countess of Hanau
* Dorothea Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1587–1609), Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst by marriage
* Dorothea Maria of Anhalt (1574–1617), Duchess of Saxe-Weimar
* Dorothea Maria of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1654–1682), German princess
* Dorothea Marie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1674–1713), Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen
* Dorothea of Anhalt-Zerbst (1607–1634), Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst
* Dorothea of Brandenburg (disambiguation)
* Dorothea of Bulgaria (fl. 1370–1390), Queen of Bosnia
* Dorothea of Denmark (disambiguation)
* Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg (1511–1571), queen consort of Christian III, King of Denmark and Norway
* Dorothea of Saxony (1563–1587), Saxon princess
* Dorothea Sophia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (1587–1645)
* Dorothea Susanne of Simmern (1544–1592), princess of the Electoral Palatinate, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar by marriage
* Margravine Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1661–1705), Countess of Hesse-Darmstadt
* Princess Dorothea of Courland (1793–1862), Baltic German noblewoman
* Princess Dorothea of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1881–1967)
* Princess Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (1685–1761), Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach by marriage

## Saints

* Dorothea of Alexandria (fl. 320), martyr
* Dorothea of Caesarea (fl. 311), martyr, patron saint of florists
* Dorothea of Montau (1347–1394), Roman Catholic saint, hermitess and visionary

## Other people
### First name

* Dorotea Bucca (1360–1436), Italian physician
* Dorotea van Fornenbergh (fl. 1647–1697), Dutch stage actress
* Dorothea Binz (1920–1947), German concentration camp officer executed for war crimes
* Dorothea Brooking (1916–1999), British children's television producer and director
* Dorothea Coelho, American game show host
* Dorothea H. Denslow (1900–1971), American sculptor, educator
* Dorothea Dix (1802–1887), American social activist
* Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers (1878–1960), English tennis player
* Dorothea Dunckel (1799–1878), Swedish playwright
* Dorothea Erxleben (1715–1762), first woman doctor in Germany
* Dorothea Fairbridge (1860–1931), South African novelist
* Dorothea Gerard (1855–1915), Scottish novelist
* Dorothea Hoffman (d. 1710), Swedish hat maker
* Dorothea Barth Jörgensen (born 1990), Swedish fashion model
* Dorothea Jordan (1761–1816), Irish actress and mistress of the future King William IV of the United Kingdom
* Dorothea Kalpakidou (born 1983), Greek discus thrower
* Dorothea Krag (1675–1754), Danish postmaster
* Dorothea Lange (1895–1965), American documentary photographer and photojournalist
* Dorothea Lasky (born 1978), American poet
* Dorothea Mackellar (1885–1968), Australian poet and writer
* Dorothea Macnee (1896–1984) British socialite and mother of Patrick Macnee
* Dorothea Maria Lösch (1730–1799), Swedish marine captain
* Dorothea Nelson (1903–1994), American librarian
* Dorothea Nicolai (born 1962), German costume designer, stage designer
* Dorothea Ostrelska (fl. 1577) Swedish court dwarf
* Dorothea Puente (1929–2011), American serial killer
* Dorothea Röschmann (born 1967), German soprano
* Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012), American painter, printmaker, sculptor and writer
* Dorothea Viehmann (1755–1816), German storyteller
* Dorothea Waddingham (1899–1936), English murderer
* Dorothea Wieck (1908–1986), German actress
* Dorothea Wierer (born 1990), Italian biathlete
* Dorothea Wyss (c. 1430/32–after 1487) married Niklaus von Flüe, the patron saint of Switzerland
* Dorothee Bär (born 1968), German politician of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU)
* Dorothee Hess-Maier, semi-retired German publisher
* Dorothee Kern (born 1966), German biochemist and academic, former basketball player for the East German team
* Dorothee Mields (born 1971), German soprano concert singer
* Dorothee Sölle (1929–2003), German liberation theologian
* Dorothee Stapelfeldt (born 1956), German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD)

### Middle name

* Johanna Dorothea Lindenaer (1664–1737), Dutch writer
* Angela Dorothea Merkel (born 1954), former Chancellor of Germany
* Christina Doreothea Stuart (fl. 1774), Norwegian artist

### Single name

* Dorothée (born 1953) French singer and television presenter

## Fictional characters

* Dorotea, woman discovered in the Sierra Morena by Cardenio in Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote
* Dorothea, the subject of the song of the same name by Taylor Swift
* Dorothea Arnault, a playable character from the video game Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
* Dorotea Benedetti, a character from the novel Pattern Recognition
* Dorothea Brooke, the heroine in the novel Middlemarch