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".[ 1] [ 2] [ 3] Dory , from the Greek masculine Δωρόθεος (Dōrótheos ). Dorofei is a rarely used Russian male version of the name.[ 4] Theodore Theodora
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 Dasha .[ 5]
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.[ 6]
There are also many variants of the name in other languages.
Dorothy was a less common variant of Dorothea [ 7]
Notable people
Arts
Dorothy Allison (1949–2024), American writerDorothy Annan (1900–1983), Brazilian-British painter, potter and muralistDorothy Arnold (1917–1984), American actressDorothy Appleby (1906–1990), American actressDorothy Bernard (1890–1955), American actressDorothy Bowers (1902–1948), British writerDorothy Christy/Christie (1906–1977), American actressDorothy "Dodie" Clark (born 1995), British singer-songwriter and YouTuberDorothy Coburn (1905–1978), American actressDorothy Dalton (1893–1972), American actressDorothy Dandridge (1922–1965), American actressDorothy Davenport (1895–1977), American actressDorothy Dell (1915–1934), American actressDorothy Devore (1899–1976), American actressDorothy Dunbar (1902–1992), American actressDorothy Dunnett (1923–2001), Scottish historical novelistDorothy Dwan (1906–1981), American actressDorothy Ellis (1935–2018), American singerDorothy Elias-Fahn , American voice actressDorothy Catherine Fontana (1939–2019), screenplay writerDorothy Garlock (1919–2018), American authorDorothy Gibson (1889–1946), American actressDorothy Gish (1898–1968), American actressDorothy Grant , Haida fashion designerDorothy Gulliver (1908–1997), American actressDorothy Antoinette Handy (1930–2002), American musician and scholarDorothy Iannone (1933–2022), American visual artistDorothy Janis (1912–2010), American actressDorothy Misener Jurney (1909–2002), American journalistDorothy Khadem-Missagh (born 1992), Austrian pianist and conductorDorothy Kelly (1894–1966), American actressDorothy Kilgallen (1913–1965), American journalist and television game show panelistDorothy, Lady Pakington (1623–1679), English writerDorothy Lamour (1914–1996), American film actressDorothy Lee (actress) (1911–1999), American actress-comedianDorothy Leigh (died c. 1616 ), British writerDorothy Mackaill (1903–1990), British-American actressDorothy Malone (1924–2018), American actressDorothy Manning (1919–2012), New Zealand artistDorothy McGuire (1916–2001), American actressDorothy Miner (1904–1973), American art historianDorothy Moskowitz (born 1940), American singerDorothy Parker (1893–1967), American satirist and poetDorothy Phillips (1889–1980), American actressDorothy Revier (1904–1993), American actressDorothy Robertson (died 1979), New Zealand painterDorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), English writerDorothy Seastrom (1903–1930), American actressDorothy Sebastian (1903–1957), American actressDorothy Squires (1915–1998), Welsh singerDorothy Sterling (1913–2008), American writerDorothy Stratten (1960–1980), Canadian Playboy PlaymateDorothy Wall (1894–1942), New Zealand-born authorDorothy Wang (born 1988), American television personalityDorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855), English author, poet and sister of William Wordsworth
Nobility and royalty
Dorothy Bentinck (1750–1794), British noblewoman and Duchess of PortlandDorothy Boyle (1699–1758), English noblewoman and Countess of Burlington and Countess of CorkDorothy Montagu (c. 1716/17–1797), British noblewoman and Countess of SandwichDorothy Percy (1564–1619), English noblewoman and Countess of NorthumberlandDorothy Savile (1640–1670), English noblewoman and Viscountess HalifaxDorothy Sidney (1598–1659), English noblewoman and Countess of LeicesterDorothy Spencer (1617–1684), English noblewoman and Countess of SunderlandDorothy Wellesley (1889–1956), British noblewoman and Duchess of WellingtonDorothy 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 authorDorothy Cotton (1930–2018), American civil rights activistDorothy Davids (1923–2014), American educator, educational services administrator, and a Native American and women's rights activistDorothy Day (1897–1980), American journalist and social activistDorothy Fraser (1926–2015), New Zealand community activist and local politicianDorothy Height (1912–2010), African-American civil rights and women's rights activistDorothy Kuya (1932–2013), British communist and anti-racist activistDorothy Bell Lawrence (1911–1973), New York assemblywomanDorothy Lawson (1580–1632), English recusant and Catholic priest harbourerDorothy Mabiletsa , South African politicianDorothy McAulay Martin (born 1937), First Lady of North CarolinaDorothy Kuhn Oko (1896–1971), librarian and labor unionistDorothy H. Rose (1920–2005), New York assemblywomanDorothy Scharf (1942–2004), British philanthropistDorothy Mae Taylor (1928–2000), African-American politician and civil rights activistDorothy Thornhill, Baroness Thornhill (born 1955), British Liberal Democrats politician and the first directly elected mayor of Watford, HertfordshireDorothy von Beroldingen (1915–1999), American lawyer, judge, and political figureDorothy Grace Waring (1891–1977), English fascist campaigner and novelistDorothy 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 activistDorothy Garrod (1892–1968), British archaeologistDorothy Hatfield (1940–2024), British aeronautical engineerDorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994), British biochemist and winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1914–2004), African-American surgeon, teacher and politicianDorothy Okello , Ugandan electrical engineerDorothy Otnow Lewis , American psychiatristDorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger (1975–present), American astronautDorothy Klenke Nash (1898–1976), American neurosurgeonDorothy Olsen (1916–2019), American aircraft pilot and member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War IIDorothy Amaury Talbot (1871–1916), British plant collector and ethnographerDorothy Vaughan (1910–2008), African American mathematician and human computer who worked for NACA and NASADorothy Wallace , American mathematician and theoristDorothy Yeboah-Manu , British microbiologist
Sport
Dorothy Becker (1900–1989), American surfer and competitive swimmerDorothy Campbell (1883–1945), Scottish golferDorothy Dermody (1909–2012), Irish fencerDorothy Hamill (born 1956), American figure skaterDorothy Kamenshek (1925–2010), American baseball playerDorothy Lidstone (born 1938), Canadian archerDorothy Manley (1927–2021), British sprinterDorothy Razzell , British long jumperDorothy Scott (born 1957), Jamaican long jumperDorothy Shirley (born 1939), British higher jumperDorothy Stanley-Turner (1916–1995), British racing driverDorothy Swinyard (born 1951), British discus thrower and shot putterDorothy Tyler-Odam (1920–2014), British high jumperDorothy Vest (1919–2013), American tennis player
Other
Dorothy Sears Ainsworth (1894–1976), American physical educatorDorothy Arnold (1885–1910), American socialite who disappeared mysteriouslyDorothy Braxton (1927–2014), the first female journalist from New Zealand to visit AntarcticaDorothy Eady (1904–1981), British EgyptologistDorothy Nneka Ede , Nigerian entrepreneur and sports enthusiastDorothy Fletcher (1927–2017), New Zealand historianDorothy Edna Genders (1892–1978), Australian Anglican deaconessDorothy Hayes (disambiguation) Dorothy Kazel (1939–1980), American Ursuline religious sister and missionary to El SalvadorDorothy 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 IDorothy O'Grady (897–1985), the first British woman found guilty of treachery in World War IIDorothy Peto (1886–1974), first female police superintendent in the UKDorothy Sciff (1903–1989), American businesswoman who was the owner and publisher of the New York Post Dorothy Seymour Mills (1928–2019), American baseball researcherDorothy Miner (1936–2008), American lawyerDorothy Stang (1931–2005), Catholic nun of the Sisters of Notre Dame de NamurDorothy Thompson (1923–2011), British social historianDorothy Ann Thrupp (1779–1847), English psalmist, hymnwriter, translatorDorothy Ufot , Nigerian lawyer
Animals
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 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 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 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 Sophie Aldred Dorothy Michaels, alias used by the female impersonator in the 1982 comedy film Tootsie Dustin Hoffman
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
See also
References
^ θεός ,
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , on Perseus Digital Library^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names . Oxford University Press. p. 79. ISBN 0-19-861060-2 ^ δῶρον ,
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , on Perseus Digital Library^ "Meaning, origin and history of the name Dorofei" . Behindthename.com .^ Charlotte Mary Yonge (1863). History of Christian Names ^ "Full text of "Curiosities of Puritan nomenclature" . Archive.org . 1880. Retrieved 30 December 2023 .^ "Popular Baby Names" . Ssa.gov . Retrieved 8 January 2024 .
