DOROTHEA SMITH

Latinate form of a post-classical Greek name, from dōron ‘gift’ + theos ‘god’ (the same elements as in Theodora, but in reverse order). The masculine form Dorotheus was borne by several early Christian saints, the feminine by only two minor ones, but only the girl's name has survived. In modern use in the English-speaking world it represents either a 19th-century Latinization of Dorothy or a learned reborrowing.

English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metalworking was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).