Jonah

From the Hebrew יוֹנָה‎ (yonáh, “dove”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒoʊnə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒəʊnə/
• Rhymes: -əʊnə

Jonah

1. A male given name.
   • 2010 Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine, Headline, →ISBN, page 165:

     'It's Jonah,' Ted says.

     Simmy considers this. 'As in the whale?'

     'Yep.'

     'You know,' Simmy says, 'that people are going to say that to him for ever more?'

     'What? The whale thing?'

     'Yes.'

     Ted shrugs again. 'Well. He'll get used to it. All names have got some associations. Anyway, he looks like a Jonah. And I like the name Jonah—'

     'Obviously,' Simmy cuts in, 'since you chose it.'

2. (biblical) A minor prophet who was cast into the sea and swallowed by a whale.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Jonah 1:15:

     :

     So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

3. A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
4. The 10th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.

• Jonah fishing

Jonah (plural Jonahs)

1. (nautical, slang) A person who brings a ship bad luck.
   • 2008, Richard Blake, Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815: Blue Lights & Psalm-singers

     Superstitious sailors regarded a clergyman as an unlucky shipmate, a Jonah whose presence would never be welcome.

2. (slang, by extension) Any person or object which is deemed to cause bad luck; a jinx.
   • 1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society 2010, p. 61:

     ‘My first agent, and he's dead. It's incredible. I feel like a complete Jonah.’

• J. van der Schaar, “Woordenboek van voornamen”, Utrecht, Antwerpen 1964, Aula-boeken 176, Uitgeverij Het Spectrum

• Johan

From English Jonah, from Hebrew יוֹנָה‎ (yonáh, “dove”).

Jonah

1. a male given name
2. a female given name