🔼The name Rhoda: Summary
- Meaning
- Rose-Bush
- Etymology
- From the noun ροδη (rhode), rose-bush.
🔼The name Rhoda in the Bible
Rhoda is a servant girl who works for Mary the mother of John Mark. She famously refrains from opening the door for the calling Peter, after the angel of the Lord has freed him from prison (Acts 12:13). When she runs in to say that Peter's at the door, the others snarl at her and say she's mad. It may be that Rhoda was under orders not to open the door for anyone because the Christians were afraid for persecution.
🔼Etymology of the name Rhoda
The name Rhoda is identical to the common Greek noun ροδη (rhode), meaning rose-tree or rose-bush. The word for a single rose is ροδον (rhodon), from whence comes our word rhododendron, literally meaning rose-tree, and the name of the color red. It may be that for the Greeks the name Ροδος (Rhodes, the island) sounded like Rose Place (although the name actually may come from the Phoenician word for snake, says the Encyclopedia Britannica).
Some related words are ροδιτης (rhodites), meaning rose-flavored; ροδοκροος (rhodokroos), meaning rose-colored; and the delightfully imaginative word ροδοκολπος (rodokolpos), meaning rosy-bosomed.
🔼Rhoda meaning
The name Rosa means Rose-Bush or Rose-Tree.