A female name. Hebrew ‘a bee’, the name of a prophetess; adopted by the Puritans in the 17th C, when it became a favourite christian name. It was borne by the youngest d. of John Milton and, as readers of Cranford will remember, by the awe-inspiring Miss Jenkyns who insisted on its being pronounced Debōrah in accordance with the usage of her late father.

In Hebrew, ‘a bee’ and, rather later, ‘eloquent’ (from the bee’s humming, it would seem). It became popular among the Puritans as the name of ‘Rebecca’s devoted nurse’ and that of ‘the wife of Leppidoth—she who was “a Prophetess and Judge” in Israel’ and who, with Barak, freed Israel from the oppression of the Canaanites. (Swan.) Confined, virtually, to Tews and to mindful descendants of Puritans.

A Scripture name, in Hebrew דְּבוֹרָה, D’bhoráh, which St. Jerome translates ‘apis, sive eloquentia,’ i. e. a bee, or eloquence. Jones, who derives the noun from the root dabhár, to speak, adds, ‘And applicable to the bee, both from the idea of its humming, as if of eloquence, and setting in order, which is so observable among a swarm of bees, and in their hive.’

Hebrew (feminine) - A bee, fig. industry and art of governing.

Hebrew (feminine) - Bee, fig. female ruler.

Deb'-o-rab, a word, a bee. 1. Rebekah s nurse. Gen. xxxv. 8. 2. A prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, who judged Israel, and dwelt under a palm-tree, between Ramoth and Bethel. Judges iv. 5, &c.

Meaning: a bee: her speaking.

A Hebrew name, meaning: She rules: the queen bee.