Dorcas

Dorcas is the Greek form of the Aramaic name Tabitha, both meaning 'gazelle'. It appears in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles, where Tabitha (called Dorcas in Greek) was a charitable woman raised from the dead by the Apostle Peter. The name was adopted into English use following the Protestant Reformation, when biblical names became fashionable in England.

In England, Dorcas was most common between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, riding the wave of Puritan enthusiasm for scriptural names that followed the Reformation. Dorcas Societies, charitable organisations run by women of the church who sewed clothing for the poor, became widespread across Britain from the early nineteenth century onwards, drawing directly on the New Testament figure's reputation for practical Christian kindness. The name appears in several works of English literature, including as a minor character in Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, reinforcing its rural, chapel-going associations. In modern Britain it is extremely rare and carries an unmistakably antiquarian flavour. It sits alongside similarly obscure biblical female names such as Kezia and Bathsheba. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, Dorcas remains actively used in communities where scripture holds strong cultural authority, meaning the name has a living international presence even as it has faded in England. For British parents with deep religious commitments or a taste for the radically unusual, it retains an austere, principled appeal.