Dorian comes from the Greek Dorieus and means "of the Dorians", one of the main tribes of ancient Greece, or more loosely "from Doris". Oscar Wilde invented it as a first name for his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which still colors the name with a certain elegance. In the United States Dorian ranked number 398 in 2000 and has held a steady place around number 500 to 600 for years, standing at number 539 among boys' names in 2025.