Holiday Calendar

National Dorothy Day

Next celebratedThursday, December 3, 2026

Everyone credits The Wizard of Oz, and the numbers refuse it twice: the 1900 novel landed on a name already climbing, and the 1939 film on one that had fallen for fifteen straight years. December 3 marks the name, not the movie.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEDecember 3
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A name day landed on another saint's feast.

No founder, proclamation or first observance for National Dorothy Day has been traced. The December 3 date has no documented link to the name either: the traditional day for Dorothy is February 6, while December 3 is the feast of St Francis Xavier.

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INTRO

America's second most popular girls' name left the top 1000

Twenty-eight girls' names have reached second place or better in the Social Security Administration's records, which run back to 1880. Six of them later fell out of the top 1000 altogether. Dorothy is one of those six, and it is the only one back inside the top 500.

The collapse was not a quiet fading, either. Across 2005 to 2010 there were five separate years in which Dorothy was not among the thousand most common girls' names in America at all.

The date is the odd part. No record explains how December 3 was picked, and the calendars that do keep a day for Dorothy do not use it.

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ORIGINS

Dorothy Day history

CHAPTER 01

A gift, and the same gift backwards

Dorothy is the usual English form of Dorothea, and it has been in use since the 16th century. The two Greek elements behind it are doron, meaning gift, and theos, meaning god. Reverse them and you get another name entirely.

Behind the Name puts it plainly in its entry for Theodore: Dorothea is derived from the same roots in reverse order. The saint who carried the name into the calendar was condemned to death at Caesarea in Cappadocia, and the 1897 Roman Martyrology gives her February 6.

CHAPTER 02

Eight years in second place, and never first

Dorothy climbed hard through the 1890s, from 93rd in 1890 to 35th by 1899. It reached second place among American girls in 1920 and held it through 1927. In all 146 years of national data it was never once ranked first.

Then it fell, and in 2005 it slipped out of the top 1000 completely. It was outside that list again in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The recovery since has been steady rather than sudden. Across the sixteen year on year steps from 2009 to 2025, the number of girls given the name rose in fourteen, held level once and fell once.

CHAPTER 03

The film that gets the credit

The obvious story is that Oz made the name, and the numbers refuse it in both directions. Baum's novel appeared in 1900, by which point Dorothy had already reached 27th. The book landed on a name that was rising fast on its own.

The 1939 film landed on a name going the other way, and not slightly. The count had fallen in every single one of the fifteen years since its 1924 peak. Dorothy ranked 8th in 1937 and 8th again in 1938, then 9th in the year the film opened, then 12th, 14th and 17th.

CHAPTER 04

A day nobody signed

Which leaves December 3. Behind the Name lists 16 name days for Dorothy's European forms across 13 countries, and not one falls on December 3. Twelve of the sixteen fall on February 6.

The date is not empty. It is simply somebody else's. Ask the same source for Xavier, Ksawery, Franciszek or Francesco and December 3 comes back every time, because the day belongs to St Francis Xavier.

As for who started National Dorothy Day, no founder is on record. The Federal Register carries no document naming it. Search the same index for Dorothy Day and five come back, one of them a presidential executive order listing her among American heroes.

At Caesarea, in Cappadocia, the birthday of St. Dorothy, virgin and martyr, who, under Sapricius, governor of that province, was first stretched on the rack, then a long time scourged with boughs of the palm-tree, and lastly condemned to capital punishment.
The Roman Martyrology1897 English edition, the entry for the Sixth Day of February

TIMELINE

Timeline

Baum names his heroine

L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and calls its central character Dorothy Gale. The name already ranked 27th among American girls that year.

The peak

39,996 American girls are recorded with the name, its highest figure in 146 years of national data, and 3.20 percent of the 1,248,872 girls' births in that year's file.

MGM reaches the screen

The Wizard of Oz is released. That year 15,169 American girls are named Dorothy, down from 16,358 the year before.

A Dorothy takes the whole prize

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry outright, with a prize share of one to one, for determining the structures of important biochemical substances by X-ray techniques.

The floor

Just 227 American girls are recorded with the name, ranking it 1117th. It is the fewest since 1885 and the worst rank anywhere in the series.

Back inside the top 500

743 American girls are named Dorothy, lifting it to 421st. That is its best American rank since 1989.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Dorothy Day by the Numbers

1,112,231
US girls named Dorothy in SSA records since 1880
3,677
US boys named Dorothy in the same records
253
Girls named Dorothy at England and Wales birth registration, 2025
1325th
Worst England and Wales rank since ONS records begin in 1996
16
Dorothy name days recorded across 13 countries

GOOD TO KNOW

National Dorothy Day Around the World

Poland

Keeps three separate name days for Dorota: February 6, August 7 and September 5.

Czechia

Puts Dorota on February 26 instead of the February 6 that most of the list uses.

Austria

Marks Dorothea twice over, on February 6 and again on June 25.

Sweden, Estonia, Italy and Spain

All four keep the Dorotea spelling on February 6, as do Hungary for Dorottya, Croatia for Doroteja and Norway for Dorte.

England and Wales

No name day at all, but the pet forms are thriving on the birth register: Dottie stood 218th in 2025 and Dolly 304th.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Dorothy Day Matters

Revival

Two governments' birth registers picked up the same revival independently.

The comeback is not an impression, it is on two governments' books. The Office for National Statistics ranked Dorothy 199th in England and Wales in 2025, from names recorded at birth registration. The American series moved the same way on a wholly separate register, which is a firmer signal than either country could give on its own.

Calendars

Name days are a real tradition, and English has none

Across 13 countries a person named Dorothea, Dorota, Dorotea, Dorottya, Doroteja or Dorte has a fixed day in the year, and families keep it. The English spelling Dorothy carries no such day in any of them.

Precision

Two Dorothy Days, and they are not the same one

Dorothy Day the journalist and Catholic Worker co-founder died on 29 November 1980 and is commemorated on or near that date. Executive Order 13978 of January 2021 listed her among American heroes, an order revoked that May and reinstated in February 2025. A name day for the given name is a different thing, and worth not confusing.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Dorothy Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Read the entry the name day actually comes from

The 1897 English Roman Martyrology is free to read in full. Find the Sixth Day of February and you have the four lines that put Dorothy in the European calendar.

LOOK

Look the name up in the raw birth data

The Social Security Administration publishes every American given name back to 1880. Pull the year a Dorothy you know was born and you can see exactly where the name stood that year.

COMPARE

Compare it with the British register

The Office for National Statistics publishes ranks and counts for England and Wales back to 1996. Reading the two registers side by side shows a revival that neither one could prove on its own.

SAY

Say the name backwards

Swap doron and theos and Dorothea becomes Theodore. It is the cheapest possible party trick and it happens to be exactly what the etymology says.

MARK

Mark it with the Dorothys and Dotties you know

A name day is observed by telling the person. Send the note on December 3, and if you want the traditional date as well, send another on February 6.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Dorothy Day?

1 / 7

What is the highest rank Dorothy has ever reached among American girls' names?

Answer

No. The Federal Register carries no document naming it, and no official status for the day was found in the other indexes checked.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

11sources
7primary records
6independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administrationthrough birth year 2025
Popular Baby Names, national data (yob1880 to yob2025)
The per-year national name files behind every American figure on this page: the eight-year run in second place, the 1924 peak of 39,996, the five years outside the top 1000, the 2009 low of 227, the 2025 count of 743 at rank 421, and the cumulative totals of 1,112,231 girls and 3,677 boys.
View source
Office for National Statisticsreleased 9 July 2026
Baby names in England and Wales: from 1996
Accredited Official Statistics compiled from names recorded at birth registration in England and Wales, giving Dorothy 253 girls at rank 199 in 2025 against 16 girls at rank 1325 in 2003, the Dottie and Dolly figures, and the note that ranks use the exact spelling registered.
View source
Internet Archive1897
The Roman Martyrology, 1897 English edition
The full scanned text of the martyrology published by order of Gregory XIII, carrying the February 6 entry for St Dorothy, martyred at Caesarea, quoted on this page, its third of December entry for St Francis Xavier, and an index dating its five Dorothy and Dorothea saints to February, March, June and September.
View source
Federal Registerqueried 3 September 2026
Documents search API, National Archives and Records Administration
Returns zero federal documents for the phrase National Dorothy Day, against five for the bare name Dorothy Day, establishing that the observance itself has no federal footprint.
View source
Federal Registersigned 18 January 2021
Executive Order 13978, Building the National Garden of American Heroes
The January 2021 executive order listing Dorothy Day among the American heroes to be honoured in a statuary park. Its revocation by Executive Order 14029 in May 2021 and its reinstatement by Executive Order 14189 in February 2025 are recorded in the same publication.
View source
The Nobel Foundation
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Facts
The official record of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, giving Hodgkin the whole prize with a share of one to one, quoting the citation verbatim, and dating her penicillin structure to 1946 and her vitamin B12 structure to 1956.
View source
Library of Congresscurrent through the 2025 class
Complete National Film Registry Listing
The National Film Preservation Board's full table of Registry titles, giving The Wizard of Oz a release year of 1939 and an induction year of 1989, the earliest induction year anywhere in the listing.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Dorothy, and the entries for Dorothea, Dorota, Dorotea, Dorottya, Doroteja and Dorte
The etymology of Dorothy as the usual English form of Dorothea from doron and theos, its use in English since the 16th century citing Hanks and Hodges A Dictionary of First Names, Baum's use of the name for Dorothy Gale, and the complete name day lists for the European forms, 16 entries across 13 countries with none on December 3.
View source
Behind the Name
Theodore
States in its own words that the name Dorothea is derived from the same roots in reverse order, which is the source for the doron and theos inversion described on this page.
View source
Behind the Name
Xavier
The Xavier entry, which gives a December 3 name day.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Dorothy Day
Biography of the American journalist and Roman Catholic reformer, giving her death on 29 November 1980, her co-founding of the Catholic Worker with Peter Maurin in 1933, and the opening of her canonization cause in 2000.
View source
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