Mina

מינע

• Gender: Female
• Origin: Yiddish
• Meaning: love

• Mina comes from an old Germanic word for "love" that found a permanent home in the Yiddish language, where it has been passed down through generations of Ashkenazi families. It is one of those names that feels like it was literally made of affection — a single beautiful syllable that says everything about how a family feels about their daughter. Its diminutives Mindel and Mindy branched off into their own beloved names, but Mina remains the elegant original.

  Mina Bern—the First Lady of the Yiddish Stage, who performed from prewar Poland to postwar New York and appeared in films like "Crossing Delancey"—gave this name nearly seventy years of spotlight. Understated and elegant, Mina is perfectly in tune with current naming trends favoring short, vowel-rich names with vintage soul. It bridges the Yiddish-speaking world and the modern nursery with remarkable ease. A name that carries generations of Ashkenazi love in a single breath.

• Alternate Spellings: Mena, Minna
• Potential Sibling Name:
  Zelda
  ,
  Raina
  ,
  Hershel
  ,
  Zalman
• Theme: love