The Greek meaning traditionally given to the name Pandora is “all-gifted.”
The name is commonly analyzed as a combination of pan, meaning “all,” and doron, meaning “gift.” Hesiod’s story supports this interpretation by having multiple gods contribute qualities or objects to Pandora. Hephaestus makes her, Athena teaches her crafts, Aphrodite gives her beauty, and Hermes gives her speech and a deceptive nature.
The name also carries an ironic force. Pandora appears to be a gift from the gods, but her arrival forms part of Zeus’s punishment after Prometheus gives fire to humanity. The attractive gift brings consequences that affect every human generation in Hesiod’s account.
The word is sometimes translated as “all-giving,” but “all-gifted” is the standard modern rendering for the mythological name. Those translations can be confused because the Greek compound is interpreted in more than one grammatical way by scholars.
Pandora’s name is also used beyond mythology, including for Saturn’s moon, an asteroid, fiction, and commercial brands. Those later uses preserve the association with the ancient figure but do not change the traditional Greek explanation.