Rhoda is a feminine given name, originating in both Greek and Latin. Its primary meaning is "rose", from the Greek "rhodon", but it can also mean "from Rhodes", from the Greek Rhodos, signifying the Greek island originally named for its roses. A woman named Rhoda is mentioned once in the Bible in Acts. Rhoda has been used as a feminine form of Roderick in the Scottish Highlands. The Greek form of the name is Rhode or Rhodé, pronounced RO-dee. Numerous phonetic spelling variants are in use in the Anglosphere, including Rhodee, Rhodey, and Rhodie.
Contents
People
Actresses
Rhoda Gemignani (born 1940), American actress
Rhoda Griffis (born 1965), American actress
Rhoda Jordan (born 1979), African-American actress
Rhoda Roberts (1959–2026), Australian actress and arts executive
Rhoda Torres (born 1978), Venezuelan actress
Rhoda Williams (1930–2006), American actress
Politicians
Rhoda Moy Crawford (born 1989), Jamaican politician
Rhoda Fraser (1918–1970), Scottish communist and peace campaigner
Rhoda Grant (born 1963), Scottish Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament
Rhoda Fox Graves (1877–1950), American suffragist, woman's rights activist, and pioneering female Republican politician
Rhoda S. Jacobs (born 1937), American member of the New York State Assembly
Rhoda Perry (born 1943), member of the Rhode Island Senate
Singers and musicians
Rhoda Chase (1914–1978), American blues singer
Rhoda Dakar (born 1958), British singer and musician, lead singer of the Bodysnatchers
Rhoda Hutchinson, a member of the Hutchinson Family Singers, a group popular in the 1840s
Rhoda Scott (born 1938), African-American hard bop and soul jazz organist
Writers
Rhoda Broughton (1840–1920), Welsh novelist
Rhoda Lerman (1936–2015), American author
Rhoda Shipman (born 1968), American comic book writer
Rhoda Truax (1901–2000), American author
Other occupations
Rhoda Abbott (1873–1946), only female passenger to go down with the Titanic and survive
Rhoda Anstey (1865–1936), British tax resister, suffragist and physical education teacher
Rhoda Billings (1937–2025), American lawyer and justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court
Rhoda Campbell Chase (1881–1959), American artist and children's book illustrator
Rhoda Haas Goldman (1924–1996), American philanthropist and heiress
Rhoda Lavinia Goodell (1839–1880), the first woman licensed to practice law in Wisconsin
Rhoda Pitchlynn Howell (1814–1911), Choctaw rancher and community leader
Rhoda Levine (1932 or 1933–2026), American opera director and choreographer
Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (1914–2003), anthropologist
Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (1854–1930), British-born American painter
Rhoda Pritzker (1914–2007), British-American philanthropist
Rhoda Richards (1784–1879), wife of Mormon leader Joseph Smith and, after his death, Brigham Young
Rhoda Sutherland (1907–1989), British academic
Rhoda Wise (1888–1948), American alleged stigmatist
Fictional characters
Rhoda Aldgate, a woman of one-sixteenth black ancestry and main character in An Imperative Duty by William Dean Howells
Rhoda Dendron, on the animated television series Darkwing Duck
Rhoda Henry, in the novels The Winds of War and War and Remembrance and the two miniseries
Rhoda Morgenstern, title character of the television show Rhoda
Rhoda Penmark, in William March's novel The Bad Seed
Rhoda Swartz, in William Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair
Rhoda Williams, protagonist of the 2011 movie Another Earth
Rhoda, in Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves
Rhoda, in 12 Oz. Mouse, an American adult animated television series
Rhoda Nunn in the novel "The Odd Women" by George Gissing