Timothy
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- One Who Honors God. The Biblical Timothy Was The Young Christian To Whom Paul Wrote. Let No Man Look Down On Your Youth.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Timothy
Timothy descends through Late Latin Timotheus from the Greek Timotheos, composed of timē (honor, value) and theos (god) — yielding "honoring God" or "one who honors God." The name's New Testament anchor is Timothy, the young companion and protégé of the apostle Paul, mentioned in multiple Pauline letters and the recipient of two Pauline epistles (1 and 2 Timothy) that Paul wrote to guide his pastoral work in Ephesus.
The name has been continuously used in Christian-influenced naming traditions for nearly two millennia. The mid-20th-century American Timothy boom was substantial, partly through the broader Catholic-American post-WWII naming wave. Notable bearers include American actor Timothy Hutton (Oscar winner for Ordinary People, 1980), British psychologist Timothy Leary (the iconic 1960s LSD advocate), American politician Timothy Geithner (US Treasury Secretary 2009–2013), and the fictional Timothy Cratchit (Tiny Tim) of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
Timothy held a US top-25 boys' rank from 1957 through 1985 — nearly three decades of top-tier American popularity. The name has receded since but remains in steady use. The name's appeal is its dignified Christian classicism combined with three soft syllables that nickname easily. Common nicknames Tim (the dominant short form, casual and adult), Timmy (warmer and youthful), and the rare T each carry distinct registers; the longer formal Timothy is sometimes paired with the diminutive Tim or the affectionate Timmy in family naming. International forms include Timotheo (Italian/Portuguese), Timoteo (Spanish), Thimothée (French), Timotheus (German/Latin), and the original Greek Timotheos.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Timothy
US Popularity History (1943–2025)
Annual US births named Timothy by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1959 with 30,784 boys named Timothy (boy rank #12 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #203 for boys (1,734 US births). That's 191 places below its 1959 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Timothy Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Timothy the strongest states are Wyoming, South Carolina, Mississippi.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wyoming | #129 | 20 |
| 2 | South Carolina | #130 | 399 |
| 3 | Mississippi | #135 | 257 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #138 | 912 |
| 5 | Alabama | #139 | 386 |
| 6 | Alaska | #141 | 75 |
| 7 | Washington | #143 | 551 |
| 8 | Montana | #143 | 87 |
| 9 | Kentucky | #143 | 362 |
| 10 | Tennessee | #150 | 562 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | #297 | 108 |
| 2 | Arizona | #282 | 282 |
| 3 | Nebraska | #264 | 101 |
| 4 | Colorado | #263 | 244 |
| 5 | Utah | #253 | 203 |
| 6 | Texas | #253 | 1,443 |
| 7 | Iowa | #247 | 151 |
| 8 | California | #243 | 1,623 |
| 9 | New Mexico | #243 | 94 |
| 10 | South Dakota | #231 | 39 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Timothy in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Timothy
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Timothy.
- Timothy Bradley is an American professional boxer – a former WBO welterweight champion and a former WBO and two-time WBC junior welterweight champion.
- Timothy Findley was a notable Canadian writer and playwright.
Looking for names like Timothy?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Timothy to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Timothy against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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