Shayna

Shayna (Yiddish: שיינא; Polish: Szejna) is a feminine name of Yiddish origin, meaning "beautiful" or "lovely", and evocative of the Yiddish phrase "אַ שיינע מיידל" ("a shayne maydel", or "a lovely girl"). Its Hebrew equivalent is Yaffa (יפה) or Yafit (יַפִית); during the years following the Holocaust, the name Shayna (and its Arabic cognate, Jamila) was often Hebraicized to Yaffa upon immigrating to Israel or, outside Israel, as a post-Holocaust distancing of diasporic heritage.