From Hebrew 'dinah' meaning 'judged' or 'vindicated'; a daughter of Jacob in the Bible.
Dinah is one of the oldest recorded female given names in the Western canon, from the Hebrew דִּינָה (Dînāh), most likely meaning "judged" or "vindicated" — from the root din, meaning judgment or law. In Genesis, Dinah is the only named daughter of Jacob and Leah, and her story is one of the Bible's most troubling: abducted and assaulted by Shechem, then avenged by her brothers Simeon and Levi in a mass killing that Jacob condemns on his deathbed. Her own voice is largely absent from the canonical text, which is precisely why Anita Diamant's 1997 novel "The Red Tent" — which retells the story from Dinah's perspective — became such a phenomenon, giving millions of readers a reclaimed, fully realized woman from that ancient fragment.
Beyond scripture, Dinah has lived a remarkably varied life in popular culture. In Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Dinah is Alice's beloved cat, mentioned with evident tenderness — a small detail that anchored the name in Victorian childhood. In the twentieth century, Dinah Shore became one of America's most beloved entertainers, and Dinah Washington earned the title "Queen of the Blues," both women lending the name warmth, soul, and unmistakable star quality.
The jazz standard "Dinah" (1925) kept the name in the American ear for decades. Today the name occupies a sweet spot: old enough to feel genuinely vintage rather than merely retro, short enough to carry easily through a life, and rich with exactly the kind of layered story that gives a name real depth.