Dora (given name)

Dora (Δώρα) is a female name of Greek origin, being a shortened form or derived from Dorothea (Dorothy) and Theodora (masculine Theodore), meaning "gift" or in its full form "god's gift", from δῶρον, doron, "gift" + θεός, theos, "god". The name Dora can also be a short form of Isadora (Isidora). Doreen, Dorian, and Dorinda are other examples of names from the same root form.

The earliest form of the word doron is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀈𐀨, dora, meaning "gifts", written in the Linear B syllabic script, but it is not an anthroponym, it is only the plural (δῶρα) of said word; on the other hand, the names Theodora and Amphidora are attested in Linear B as 𐀳𐀃𐀈𐀨, te-o-do-ra, and 𐀀𐀠𐀈𐀨, a-pi-do-ra, respectively. The masculine counterpart of the latter, i.e. Amphidoros, is also found: 𐀀𐀠𐀈𐀫, a-pi-do-ro.

In Albanian, dora means "hand". In Russian, Dora can be a diminutive of the male first name Agafodor.

People

 * Dora Altmann (1881–1971), German actress
 * Dora Annie Dickens (1850–1851), infant daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens
 * Dora Anastasiou (born 1988), Cypriot beauty queen
 * Dora Bakoyannis (born 1954), Greek politician
 * Dora Barrancos (born 1940), Argentine academic and politician
 * Dora Beedham née Spong (1879 – 1969), British nurse and suffragette
 * Dora Bryan (1923–2014), British actress
 * Dora Carrington (1893–1932), British painter
 * Dora Erway (1889–1976), American artist and home economist
 * Dora Gabe (1886–1983), Bulgarian Jewish poet
 * Dora Greenwell (1821–1882), English poet
 * Dora Hand (c. 1844–1878), American dance hall singer in Dodge City, Kansas
 * Dora d'Istria (1828–1888), Romanian-Albanian writer
 * Dora Herbert Jones (1890–1974), Welsh administrator and singer
 * Dora Kalaus (born 1996), Croatian handball player
 * Dora Krsnik (born 1992), Croatian handball player
 * Dora Kyriakou (born 1967), Cypriot sprinter
 * Dora Lewis (1862–1928), American suffragist
 * Dora Maar (1907–1997), French model and photographer
 * Dora Richards Miller, (1842–1914), Danish West Indies-born American author and educator
 * Dora Mavor Moore (1888–1979), Canadian actress
 * Dora Montefiore (1851–1933), English-Australian suffragist, socialist
 * Dora Musielak, Mexican-American aerospace engineer, historian of mathematics, and book author
 * Dora Pavel (born 1946), Romanian novelist
 * Dora Pejačević (1885–1923), Croatian composer
 * Dora Puelma (1898-1972), Chilean artist
 * Dora Knowlton Ranous (1859–1916), American actress, author
 * Dora Richter (1892–unknown), German transgender woman and the first known person to undergo complete male-to-female gender-affirming surgery
 * Dora Rosetti (1908-1989), Greek doctor and writer
 * Dora Russell (1894–1986), British author
 * Dora Isella Russell (1925-1990) Uruguayan poet, journalist
 * Dora Adele Shoemaker (1873-1962), American educator, writer
 * Dora Stratou (1903–1988), Greek dancer and folklorist
 * Dora Varella (born 2001), Brazilian skateboarder
 * Dora V. Wheelock (1847–1923), American activist and writer

Fictional characters

 * Dora Marquez, title character of Dora the Explorer
 * Dora Spenlow, a character in David Copperfield
 * "Dora the Female Explorer", a song by British band Stackridge from their debut album Stackridge
 * Dora Winifred "D.W." Read, character in the Arthur book and television series
 * Dora Orefice, character in the Life Is Beautiful movie