Dinah

DYE-nah
Hebrew
"God will judge"

Dinah Origin and Meaning

The name Dinah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God will judge".

As the song says, "Dinah, is there anyone finer?" Dinah is a charming, underused Old Testament name with a rich literary and musical resume.

In the Old Testament, Dinah was the beautiful daughter of Jacob and Leah. While some conflate the Biblical Dinah with the Biblical Adinah, they are in fact different figures in the Old Testament.

Dinah is the heroine of the best-selling Anita Diamant novel The Red Tent. In the George Eliot novel Adam Bede, Dinah Morris is a young preacher who marries the hero. And in the classic film The Philadelphia Story, Dinah is the heroine's sassy kid sister. Dinah also appears in Alice in Wonderland as the name of Alice’s kitten.

One important thing to note is that "Aunt Dinah" has been used as a racial stereotype, from the character of the cook in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The term has also appeared in several songs.

The name Dinah was adopted by two great singers: Dinah Washington (born Ruth) and Dinah Shore (born Frances).

# 910 in the US

Dinah Rank in US Top 1000

# 1033 on Nameberry

Dinah Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Dinah Popularity

Famous People Named Dinah

  • Dinah
    Biblical daughter of Jacob
  • Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones)
    American singer
  • Frances Rose "Dinah" Shore
    American singer
  • Dinah Beth Manoff
    American actress
  • Dinah Jane Milika Ilaisaane Hansen
    singer of American girl group Fifth Harmony
  • Dinah Lee (born Diane Marie Jacobs)
    New Zealand pop singer
  • Dinah Sheridan (born Dinah Nadyejda Ginsburg)
    English actress
  • Dinah Pfizenmaier
    German tennis player
  • Dinah Cancer
    stage name of vocalist Mary Ann Sims
  • Dinah Barbara Christie
    Canadian actress
  • Dinah Maria Craik
    English novelist
  • Dinah Lenney
    American actress

Dinah in Pop Culture

  • Dinah
    Alice's cat in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"
  • Dinah Hunter
    character in the Demon Headmaster books and television series
  • Dinah Mannering
    character in Enid Blyton's "The Island of Adventure"
  • Dinah
    the family cook in The Bobbsey Twins series
  • Dinah Drake and Dinah Laurel Lance aka Black Canary
    mother and daughter DC Comics characters
  • Aunt Dinah
    cook in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
  • Dinah Lord
    character in movie "The Philadelphia Story"
  • Dinah
    character in Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy"
  • Dinah de La Baudraye
    character in Balzac's "Comedie humaine"
  • Mrs. Dinah Delacroix
    formerly Diana Piggott (Dicey), character in Elizabeth Bowen's "The Little Girls" (1964)
  • Miss Dinah Perfect
    old lady given to table,rapping in Sheridan Le Fanu's "All in the Dark" (1866)
  • Dinah Sachs
    main character in Susanna Kaysen's "Asa, As I Knew Him" (1987)
  • Dinah
    character in anime "Sailor Moon"
  • Dinah Marler
    character on American soap "Guiding Light"