Dina, Adina, and Vardina

Just because three names look very similar doesn’t mean that one name comes from the other, or that they are even etymologically related. This idea can be illustrated by taking a close look at the names Dina, Adina, and Vardina. All three of these names rhyme with each (they each end with the two syllables dina), yet each name has a totally different origin and meaning.

Let’s take a closer look.

The name Dina already appears in Tanach – the name of Yaakov and Leah’s daughter (Bereishis 30:21). That name is related to the Hebrew word din, which means “judgment/justice” or “rule.” The term din is often used in rabbinic literature to refer to a legal principle or inference, with one of the most well-known types of logical inferences in Jewish law being the kal vachomer (known to philosophers as an a fortiori argument). That form of reasoning involves drawing a conclusion from a more lenient case to a more stringent case.

As the Talmud (Berachos 60a) teaches, the birth of the biblical Dina actually came about through precisely that sort of argument. The Talmud relates that Yaakov’s wife Leah knew ahead of time that Yaakov was destined to sire twelve sons. After the birth of her sixth son, Leah reasoned that if she gives birth to another son, then that would mean that her sister Rachel could only give birth to a maximum of one son (because Bilhah and Zilpah had already each given birth to two sons, plus Leah’s seven sons would mean that there would already be eleven sons). This would mean that each of the more “lenient” (i.e., less important wives) would end up having more sons than Rachel who was one of the two more “stringent” (prominent) ones. Because of this, Leah prayed that her seventh pregnancy should yield a daughter instead of a son, hence the birth of Dina.

The name Adina does not appear in the entire Tanach or anywhere in Chazal’s writings, but it does appear twice in the quasi-Midrashic work Sefer HaYashar. That work (whose provenance is somewhat unclear, but is nonetheless quoted prominently in Seder HaDoros) relates that Lavan’s wife, the mother of Rachel and Leah, was named Adina. That work also relates that Yaakov’s son Levi married a woman named Adina bat Yovav, who was the mother of his three sons (Gershon, Kehat, and Merari).

The name Adina derives from the Hebrew root AYIN-DALET-NUN (a root that means enjoyment/pleasure/delight). In Tanach, the adjective adinah (see Yishayahu 47:8) refers to someone who is especially pampered, which leaves her extra sensitive, delicate, or dainty. Essentially, the word adinah means “refined.” Another term deriving from that Hebrew root is the word maadanim, which refers to pleasant foods or delicacies that are served at the king’s table (see Tehillim 36:9, Yirmiyahu 51:34, and Eicha 4:5). The tribe of Asher was in particular blessed that they should be the ones to provide the “maadanei melech” (Bereshis 49:20) – “the king’s delectables.” In Modern Hebrew, a maadan refers to a “delicacy,” often referring specifically to “dairy puddings.”

In light of this etymology, we can now see how the name Adina is actually more closely related to Edna than to Dina. Edna – which also derives from the Hebrew root AYIN-DALET-NUN – does not appear as a given name in Tanach, but it does appear in the so-called apocryphal books Jubilees (Sefer Yovlim) and Tobit that are part of the Christian Bible. That said, edna does appear in Tanach as a word: When Sarah was approaching ninety-years and was told that she would yet bear a child, she laughed while rhetorically asking, “After I have become worn out, I shall have edna?” (Bereishis 18:12). Targum Onkelos translates edna as “youthfulness,” leading Radak to write that edna refers to youthfully smooth skin, such as that of an especially pampered or refined lady. By the way, the name Edna was apparently one of the top twenty names given to girls born in the U.S. every single year from the years 1889 through 1917.

Needless to say, Edna is also related to the “delightful pleasures” of the Garden of Eden, and in recent times Eden itself has also become a popular feminine given name.

Another theory out there is that the name Adina is actually a calque from the Yiddish name Eidel/Aidel/Udel. Allow me to explain: A calque is a linguistic term that refers to a type of loan translation, where a word is borrowed from one language and translated literally into another language. Instead of adopting the original word directly or changing its pronunciation to fit the new language, with a calque the semantic meaning of the original word is instead translated into equivalent terms in the target language. For our purposes, the Yiddish name in question derives from the Germanic name Adel (sometimes spelled Ædel), which means “noble/refined.” Other variants of that Germanic feminine name include Adelle, Adele, Ethel, and possibly Ettel (which others argue is actually a form of Esther). Either way, when translated into Hebrew, you get Adina, which we saw above is an adjective that also means “refined.”

Legend has it that the Baal Shem Tov named his daughter Udel because that name (spelled ALEPH-DALET-LAMMED) served as an acronym for the words from the pasuk in Devarim 33:2: aish das lamo. But the truth is that Udel is not a totally original name; it’s just a particular way of pronouncing the classic Yiddish name Eidel/Aidel.

Interestingly, in Tanach there is a man named Adina ben Shiza from the Tribe of Reuben, who is listed as one of the strong men of King Dovid’s army (Divrei HaYamim I 11:42). But his name is spelled with a final ALEPH, while the feminine name Adina that we’ve been discussing is spelled with a final HEY. There is also a guy named Adin (which is spelled the same as Adina, except without any final HEY or ALEPH) who is mentioned in Tanach (Ezra 2:15, 8:6; Nechemia 7:20, 10:17).

The name Vardina is of post-Biblical Hebrew origin. It derives from the Hebrew word vered, which means “rose.” The suffix “-ina” is a diminutive or feminine form, commonly used to make a name sound softer or more affectionate. Therefore, Vardina essentially means “little rose” or “rose-like.” Although the word vered does not appear in Biblical Hebrew, it does appear in the Mishnah (Sheviit 7:6-7, Maasrot 2;5, Shabbat 14:4). It is interesting to note that Rabbi Ernest Klein (no relation) traces vered to the Aramaic word varda (or vardina in some dialects of Aramaic), which he further identifies as a loanword that comes from the Old Iranian word wrda. That latter word is also seen as the etymon (i.e., etymological source) of the Greek word rodon and the Latin rosa, which means that the English word rose (which from derives from the Latin) is actually etymologically-related to vered.