Donna
is an English-language
feminine first name meaning "
woman" in modern
Italian, and "
lady" or "
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a d ...
" in classical italian.
[https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/donna/ See 2b for the comparison with "Don"] The original meaning is closer to "lady of the home" and is a title of respect in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, equivalent to ''
Don''
for gentlemen or lord.
Don is the short form of
Donald It is a common
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, particularly in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. It is rare as a
surname
In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community.
Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...
.
People with the given name
*
Donna Air (born 1979), English actress
*
Donna Axum (1942–2018), American beauty pageant winner, author, television executive producer, philanthropist and model
*
Donna Baird, American epidemiologist and evolutionary-population biologist
*
Donna J. Boley
Donna Jean Boley (; born December 9, 1935) is a Republican member of the West Virginia Senate representing the 3rd district. West Virginia Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. appointed Boley on May 14, 1985, to fill a seat made vacant by the resignatio ...
(born 1935), American politician
*
Donna Brazile
Donna Lease Brazile (; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, an ...
, American political
activist
*
Donna Burke
Donna Burke is an Australian voice actress, singer, narrator and businesswoman. She is also known for her vocal work on songs produced for video game series such as ''Metal Gear'' and ''Final Fantasy''.
Biography
Burke graduated from Edith Cow ...
, Australian singer, voice actress and businesswoman
*
Donna Cruz, Filipino pop singer
*
Donna D'Errico, American actress
*
Donna Dixon, American actress
*
Donna Douglas, American actress
*
Donna Edwards, American politician
*
Donna Fargo
Donna may refer to the short form of the honorific ''nobildonna'', the female form of Don (honorific) in Italian.
People
* Donna (given name); includes name origin and list of people and characters with the name
* Roberto Di Donna (born 1968), ...
, American country singer
*
Donna Feore (born 1963), Canadian choreographer and theatre director
*
Donna Gould
Donna Gould (born 10 June 1966) is an Australian former athlete and cyclist. She competed in the women's 3000 metres at the 1984 Summer Olympics and the women's individual road race at the 1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics ( ...
(born 1966), Australian cyclist
*
Donna Haraway
Donna J. Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies. S ...
, American philosopher
*
Donna Hylton, Jamaican-American kidnapper and murderer
*
Donna Karan, American fashion designer
*
Donna Leon, American novelist
*
Donna Lewis, Welsh singer
*
Donna Loren, American singer and actress, the Dr Pepper Girl in the 1960s
*
Donna Maguire, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
*
Donna Mayhew, American javelin thrower
*
Donna McKechnie, American actress
*
Donna Mills, American actress who played Abby Cunningham on ''Knots Landing''
*
Donna Morrissey
Donna Morrissey (born in The Beaches, Newfoundland) is a Canadian author.
At age 16, Morrissey left her birthplace of The Beaches, a small outport on the west coast of Newfoundland. She lived in various places in Canada before returning to St. Jo ...
, Canadian author
*
Donna Murphy, American stage and film actress
*
Donna Orender (née Geils; born 1957), American
Women's Pro Basketball League All-Star guard and former WNBA president
*
Donna Pescow
Donna Gail Pescow is an American film and television actress and director. She is known for her roles as Annette in the 1977 film ''Saturday Night Fever'', Angie Falco-Benson in the 1979-1980 sitcom '' Angie'', Donna Garland in the sitcom '' ...
, American actress
*
Donna Reed, American actress
*
Donna Rubin
Donna Rubin (born October 5, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. She represented the U.S. at the 1977 Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning a silver medal in doubles with Jodi Appelbaum-Steinbauer, and at the 1981 Maccabiah Game ...
(born 1959), American tennis player
*
Donna Shalala
Donna Edna Shalala ( ; born February 14, 1941) is an American politician and academic who served in the Carter and Clinton administrations, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021. Shalala is a recipient of the Preside ...
, Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton
*
Donna Strickland
Donna Theo Strickland (born 27 May 1959) is a Canadian optical physicist and pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with Gérard Mourou, for the practical implementation of chirped ...
, Canadian physicist and Nobel laureate 2018
*
Donna Summer, American singer, notably of
disco music
*
Donna Tartt
Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American novelist and essayist.
Early life
Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her fa ...
, American writer
*
Donna Testerman
Donna Marie Testerman (born 1960) is a mathematician specializing in the representation theory of algebraic groups. She is a professor of mathematics at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
Testerman completed her Ph.D. ...
(born 1960), mathematician
*
Donna Vekic, Croatian tennis
Fictional characters
*
Donna Bishop
Donna Bishop is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera ''Home and Away'', played by Nicola Quilter. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 8 November 1994 and departed on 23 June 1995.
Casting
Quilter jo ...
, character in ''
Home and Away''
*
Donna Cabonna
''That's So Raven'' is an American television teen sitcom that was created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman, and aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between January 2003 and November 2007. The series centers on Raven Baxter (Raven-Sym ...
, character in ''
That's So Raven
''That's So Raven'' is an American television teen sitcom that was created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman, and aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between January 2003 and November 2007. The series centers on Raven Baxter (Raven-Sy ...
''
*
Donna Duck, character in the 1937 Disney short ''
Don Donald''
*
Donna Clark (
née Emerson), a character in ''
Halt and Catch Fire''
*
Donna Freedman
Donna Freedman (also Brown) is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours'', played by Margot Robbie. She made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 2 June 2008. Donna was initially introduced as a gu ...
, character in ''
Neighbours''
*
Donna Hayward
Donna Marie Hayward is a fictional character in the ''Twin Peaks'' franchise. She was portrayed by Lara Flynn Boyle in the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991) and by Moira Kelly in the film '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me'' (1992) an ...
, character in ''
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 ...
''
*
Donna Henshaw, a character in ''
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps''
*
Donna Logan, character in ''The Bold and the Beautiful''
*
Donna Ludlow, character in ''
EastEnders''
*
Donna Martin, character in ''
Beverly Hills, 90210''
*
Donna Meagle, main character in ''
Parks and Recreation''
*
Donna Moss, main character in ''
The West Wing''
*
Donna Noble, character in ''
Doctor Who''
*
Donna Paulsen
'' Suits'' is an American legal drama, created by Aaron Korsh. It premiered on USA Network in June 2011. The series revolves around Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), a senior partner at a top law firm in Manhattan, and his recently hired associa ...
, character in ''
Suits''
*
Donna Pinciotti, character ''
That 70s Show''
*
Donna Sheridan in ''
Mamma Mia!''
*
Donna Troy aka "Wonder Girl", character from
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...
*
Donna Tubbs
''Family Guy'' is an American animated comedy multimedia franchise originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company, primarily based on the animated series ''Family Guy'' (1999–present), its spin-off series ...
, character in ''
The Cleveland Show
''The Cleveland Show'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Richard Appel, and Mike Henry for the Fox Broadcasting Company. A spin-off of ''Family Guy'', the series centers on Cleveland Brown, his new wife Donna Tubbs, a ...
''
*
Donna Windsor, character in ''
Emmerdale''
*
Donna Yates, character in ''
EastEnders''
See also
*
Donka (name)
References
{{Reflist
Given names
English feminine given names
Italian feminine given names
Scottish feminine given names
Welsh feminine given names