Theodor

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Theodore in US United States, FR France, GB United Kingdom and 7 more, Teodoro in BR Brazil, PE Peru, AR Argentina and 7 more, Teodor in PL Poland, CZ Czechia, BG Bulgaria and Теодор in UA Ukraine, RU Russia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Theodor is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Norwegian Bokmål given name38K records spelled Theodor10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland

  Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Danish, Swedish

  Also written Theodór, Theódór, Théodor

• Portuguese given name5.0K records spelled Theodor3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Spain, Switzerland

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

  Also written Théodor

• a separate given name4.2K records spelled Theodor4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Switzerland, Sweden

  Also written Theódór, Theodôr, Théodor

• Romanian given name1.5K records spelled Theodor2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Romania, Moldova, United States, United Kingdom

  Also written Théodor

55 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Theodor is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, männl. Vom. griechischen Ur­ sprungs (zu griech. theos »Gott« und döron »Geschenk, Gabe«, also »Gottesgeschenk«).

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In French, Variante de Théodore, du grec theodoros, « don de Dieu ».

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In German, from Greek Theodoros 'gift of God'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 113 years between 1884–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• E. T. A. Hoffmannb. 1776DEnot in their usual nameGerman Romantic author (1776–1822)
• Karl Weierstrassb. 1815DEnot in their usual nameGerman mathematician (1815–1897)
• Theodor Mommsenb. 1817DEGerman classical scholar and historian (1817–1903)
• Emil Kocherb. 1841CHnot in their usual namesurgeon, laureate of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Medicine (1841-1917)
• Theodor Herzlb. 1860HUfather of modern political Zionism (1860–1904)
• Vsevolod Meyerholdb. 1874RUnot in their usual nameRussian theatre director (1874–1940)
• Theodor Svedbergb. 1884SESwedish chemist (1884-1971)
• Theodor Adornob. 1903DEGerman philosopher, sociologist and theorist (1903–1969)
• Theodor Seuss Geiselb. 1904USAmerican children's author and cartoonist (1904–1991)
• Heinrich Böllb. 1917DEnot in their usual nameGerman writer (1917–1985)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 609 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Theodor?

We estimate roughly 343 thousand people bear Theodor (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Theodor have the most bearers?

Theodor is most frequently recorded in Peru, where it is most often spelled teodoro.

How common is Theodor compared with other names?

In Peru, Theodor is the 211th most common given name of 221,790 given names recorded there.

Is Theodor a male or female name?

Theodor is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Theodor mean?

Recorded meaning: a male given name from Ancient Greek, equivalent to English Theodore