Dinah: Baby Name of the Day

Long overlooked, the baby name Dinahcould be a great alternative to some of today’s favorites.

Our Baby Name of the Day was inspired by this list of 1895 baby names. Thanks to Nessa for making the original suggestion!

WHAT DOES THE NAME DINAH MEAN?

The Book of Genesis tells us that the Biblical Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, was raped by a prince of Shechem. She’s Jacob’s only daughter. Dinah’s brothers retaliated with force.

The name comes from a Hebrew word meaning judged, judgment, or perhaps vindicated.

Anita Diamant’s 1997 bestseller The Red Tent imagines an intelligent, capable figure and a very different interpretation. In her story, Dinah and the prince are in love, and choose to marry.

Her brothers, Simeon and Levi, go on a rampage anyway. Dinah leaves her family behind, though her story is remembered by her female descendants.

DINAH AS A GIVEN NAME

Like many a girl’s name from the Bible, it first caught on during the Protestant Reformation.

By the nineteenth century in the US, it became a generic term to refer to all enslaved women. Sojourner Truth used it in an 1850 speech. The New York Times referred to freed slaves by the name in an 1865 article. An 1867 painting by Eastman Johnson depicts such a woman, titled Dinah.

The song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” dates to the 1890s, complete with pleas for Dinah to blow her horn. Some lyrics are even older, dating to the 1830s. The name seems to be a generic term for an African American woman, at least in the earliest versions of the song.

Fast forward to 1923, though, and the name’s image had started to shift. The Broadway musical Kid Boots – and the movie version it inspired – struck gold with the song “Dinah,” a jazz standard that you’d probably recognize today. Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Dean Martin were among the many to cover the tune.

1940s FAVORITE

Another young singer, named Frances Shore, performed the song in the late 1930s. 

Early, influential disc jockey Martin Block couldn’t remember her name. He called her that “Dinah girl” for the song she performed. 

And so Frances rose to fame as singer Dinah Shore.

The Philadelphia Story debuted on Broadway in 1939, and was adapted for the movies a year later. The 1940 film starred Katharine Hepburn as headstrong socialite Tracy.

She had a younger sister, who introduces herself as Dinah, noting that she was born Diana, “… but my sister changed it.”

The singer deserves credit for the name’s dramatic rise during the 1940s. But I think the Diana-to-Dinah switch in the movie underscores how very fashionable the name became.

Over a long career, Shore hosted two television shows, the first in the 1950s, and another in the 1970s.

Other uses of the baby name Dinah include:

• Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and celebrated 1950s singer Dinah Washington – born Ruth.
• Dinah Morris is a major character in the George Eliot novel Adam Bede from 1859.
• DC comics gave the name Dinah Lance to early super heroine Black Canary, who debuted in 1947. 
• A short-lived 1970s fashion doll was called Dinah-Mite.

It’s also the name of Alice’s cat in Alice in Wonderland, and it’s been heard on CBS soap opera Guiding Light.

Dina – hold the ‘h’ – is more likely to sound like Deena, though it might be another spelling of this name, too.

HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME DINAH?

From the late nineteenth century, when popularity data was first reported, into the early 1900s, the baby name Dinah was consistently  used in small numbers. Sometimes it was enough to rank in the US Top 1000, but not always – and only on the fringes.

Beginning in 1941 through 1966, Dinah ranked in the US Top 1000 every year, peaking in 1955.

That coincides with Dinah Shore’s early career success, and suggests some combination of the song and the singer pushed the baby name Dinah up the rankings.

Other similar names include:

• Diana and Diane, from the Roman goddess of the moon.
• Dena and Deanna, which might be related to Dean, or possibly inspired by another singer – Canada’s Deanna Durbin, born Edna. 
• The rare Dinorah and Dinora, sometimes considered elaborations of Dinah.
• Feminine forms of Dionysius, like Dionysia, sometimes end up close to Dinah, like Denia and Diona, as well Dionne – which brings to mind yet another singer, Dionne Warwick.

Lots of names sound like Dinah, and yet the precise name is quite rare. As of 2023, just 40 girls were named Dinah. It’s dropped slightly in use since the beginning of the 2000s.

RETRO RARITY

In our age of Hannah, Isla, Mila, Delilah, and Lyla, it seems like the baby name Dinah could easily rank in the US Top 100.

Instead, it’s shockingly rare. And that makes Dinah quite cool. It’s a throwback kind of name, a sort of Brooklyn-Silver Lake choice that feels effortlessly interesting and distinctive. It’s that rare Biblical pick that doesn’t feel too self-consciously religious – think Hephzibah – or perfectly mainstream – like Sarah.

If you’re looking for something different, distinctive, and rich in story, Dinah might be the perfect name to add to your list.

What do you think of the baby name Dinah?

This post was originally published on January 2, 2009. It was substantially revised and re-posted on July 11, 2016 and again on December 21, 2024.