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Dorian vs Dorthea

American parents have registered 28,728 Dorians since 1880, against 2,437 Dortheas. Dorian is still ahead, with 564 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dorian against Dorthea, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dorian Dorthea

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

Of the 125 years in which either name was published, Dorian for 82 years and Dorthea for 43 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Dorian Dorthea
Total US births 28,7282,437
Most in one year 70369
Babies in 2025 5647
Estimated living today 27,0001,200
Median age today 2461
Peak year 20081921
Best rank 441st boys890th girls
Rank in 2025 539th11,932nd
First recorded 19151882
Girls / boys 4,541 / 24,1872,437 / 0

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.

Which name is older

Half of the Dortheas alive today are over 61; half the Dorians are over 24. That is 37 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

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: Dorian and Dorthea.