Dorcas

The name is a translation — the Greek word for gazelle, set down in the Book of Acts as the given name of a disciple in Joppa who was known for her seamstress work and her generosity to widows. She is also the woman Peter raises from the dead, which gives the name a quieter miraculous association than most biblical names carry. Tabitha is the same name in Aramaic; Dorcas is what the text offers when it turns to Greek.

The Puritans adopted it in the seventeenth century with their characteristic enthusiasm for scripture's lesser-known corners, and Dorcas societies — women's charitable sewing circles — flourished in English and American parishes well into the Victorian era, giving the name a particular association with practical, organized kindness. Two brisk syllables, DOR-kas, which modern English-speaking ears find arresting enough to pause on. In 2026 it occupies the same recovery arc as other long-neglected biblical names — genuinely rare, carrying lamplight and calico and the memory of hands at useful work. For parents drawn to names that are historically significant without being fashionable, Dorcas offers something almost no other name can: genuine obscurity in the best sense.