Dory
Dory was given to 7 girls in 2025, #12,244 among girls’ names; 1,092 Americans have been recorded with it since 1919 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Dory by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Dory mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Dory is “a diminutive of the female given names Dorothy and Doris.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Dory?
#12,244 among girls’ names, 2025
Dory entered the girls’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #12,244 in 2025.
46 babies in 1972, the peak
Dory peaked in 1972, when 46 babies were given it (32 girls, #2,324 among girls’ names). The 7 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,244 | under 5 | |
| 2024 | 10 | #9,731 | under 5 | |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,527 | under 5 | |
| 2019 | 7 | #12,811 | under 5 | |
| 2018 | 7 | #12,842 | under 5 | |
| 2017 | 8 | #11,949 | under 5 | |
| 2016 | 6 | #14,827 | under 5 | |
| 2011 | 8 | #12,480 | under 5 | |
| 2009 | 8 | #12,762 | under 5 | |
| 2008 | 6 | #15,953 | under 5 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 12 | #9,711 | under 5 | |
| 2006 | 13 | #8,863 | under 5 | |
| 2005 | 14 | #8,017 | under 5 | |
| 2004 | 16 | #7,172 | under 5 | |
| 2003 | 12 | #8,663 | under 5 | |
| 2001 | 8 | #11,304 | under 5 | |
| 2000 | 8 | #11,016 | under 5 | |
| 1999 | 9 | #9,714 | under 5 | |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,497 | under 5 | |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,050 | under 5 | |
| 1996 | 7 | #10,894 | under 5 | |
| 1993 | 8 | #9,833 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 10 | #8,247 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 13 | #6,700 | under 5 | |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,524 | under 5 | |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,223 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 9 | #7,882 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 14 | #5,366 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 9 | #7,271 | 5 | #7,019 |
| 1985 | 13 | #5,437 | 5 | #6,822 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,401 | 6 | #5,776 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,347 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,537 | 5 | #6,629 |
| 1981 | 12 | #5,652 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | 17 | #4,377 | under 5 | |
| 1979 | 11 | #5,847 | 7 | #4,986 |
| 1978 | 24 | #3,218 | 6 | #5,254 |
| 1977 | 27 | #2,931 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 22 | #3,207 | 6 | #5,108 |
| 1975 | 18 | #3,668 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 27 | #2,699 | 10 | #3,389 |
| 1973 | 20 | #3,263 | under 5 | |
| 1972 | 32 | #2,324 | 14 | #2,568 |
| 1971 | 27 | #2,683 | 6 | #4,544 |
| 1970 | 24 | #2,874 | 11 | #2,940 |
| 1969 | 21 | #2,937 | 5 | #4,571 |
| 1968 | 16 | #3,356 | 5 | #4,291 |
| 1967 | 18 | #2,991 | under 5 | |
| 1966 | 9 | #4,589 | under 5 | |
| 1965 | 15 | #3,298 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 34 | #2,044 | 7 | #3,364 |
| 1963 | 12 | #3,861 | 5 | #4,208 |
| 1962 | 29 | #2,221 | under 5 | |
| 1961 | 25 | #2,424 | under 5 | |
| 1960 | 28 | #2,207 | 5 | #4,177 |
| 1959 | 19 | #2,697 | under 5 | |
| 1958 | 16 | #3,000 | under 5 | |
| 1957 | 21 | #2,505 | under 5 | |
| 1956 | 23 | #2,336 | 6 | #3,635 |
| 1955 | 25 | #2,173 | under 5 | |
| 1954 | 20 | #2,464 | under 5 | |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,325 | under 5 | |
| 1952 | 19 | #2,428 | 5 | #3,871 |
| 1951 | 14 | #2,839 | under 5 | |
| 1950 | 11 | #3,276 | under 5 | |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,449 | under 5 | |
| 1947 | 6 | #4,899 | under 5 | |
| 1946 | 9 | #3,474 | under 5 | |
| 1919 | under 5 | 5 | #4,320 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Dory a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,092 Americans recorded as Dory, 89% are girls and 11% boys. In 2025 it went to 7 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Dory: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Dory, and how old are they?
An estimated 979 Americans named Dory and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 52 years old and half are between 39 and 63. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,636 people named Dory (1,393 women and girls, 243 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 985 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 116,527 babies since 1880, Dory is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 7 of their 117 babies (6.0%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Dory
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Dory and names like it
- Compare Dory and DoraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sDory peaked in 1972.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Dory since 1910.
- The top names of 1972The year the most babies were named Dory.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Dory alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with DMost given first.