Humanverse

Dorion vs Dorothy

American parents have registered 1,115,908 Dorothys since 1880, against 585 Dorions. Dorothy is still ahead, with 743 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Dorion against Dorothy, 1880 to 2025 0 12.5k 25k 37.5k 50k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Dorion Dorothy

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

Dorothy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2004, when Dorion had 25 and Dorothy had 290.

Side by side

  Dorion Dorothy
Total US births 5851,115,908
Most in one year 2540,097
Babies in 2025 under 5743
Estimated living today 570253,000
Median age today 2576
Peak year 20041924
Best rank 3,636th boys2nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked421st
First recorded 19711880
Girls / boys 0 / 5851,112,231 / 3,677

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 Dorothys alive today are over 76; half the Dorions are over 25. That is 51 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Dorion and Dorothy.