masc. proper name, biblical prophet and subject of the Book of Jonah, from Hebrew Yonah, literally "dove, pigeon." In nautical use (and extended) "person on shipboard regarded as the cause of bad luck" (Jonah 1.v-xvi).
Entries linking to jonah
Davy Jones
"the spirit of the sea," 1751, first mentioned in Smollett's "The Adventures of Peregrin Pickle" as ("according to the mythology of sailors") an ominous and terrifying fiend who "presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is often seen in various shapes, perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, shipwrecks and other disasters." The second element in the name might be from biblical Jonah, regarded as unlucky by sailors.
Davy Jones's Locker "bottom of the sea," is by 1803 (Davy's locker in the same sense is by 1788), from nautical slang, of unknown origin.
Jonas
masc. proper name, from Late Latin Jonas, from Greek Ionas, from Hebrew yonah "dove, pigeon" (compare Jonah).