Given name & surname
Doctor
“a physician; one who heals others”
Doctor is used as a given name and a surname. One American interpretation is “a physician; one who heals others.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One American interpretation is “a physician; one who heals others.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is American.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1880. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Doctor through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 379
- 379 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1920
- 17 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 6 in 1951. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 17 in 1920. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 766 as a first name in 2020; 3,488 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Doctor’s family of names
Doctor has a related form in Dock. Doctor has a related form in Doc. Doctor has a related form in Dok.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 10
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Docvariant
- Dockvariant
- Doctervariant · English
- Dokvariant
- Doktarvariant
- Doktervariant
- Dokturvariant
- Doktorvariant
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