Name Awesome

Shona

Girls' name

God is gracious, through Shauna

Shona has been given to 2,414 babies in the U.S. since 1943. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1970, with 160 recorded.

Babies named Shona, 2024

1 in 557,000

Shona over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shona: meaning, origin, and history

God is gracious, through Shauna

Scottish Gaelic

What Shona means

Shona belongs to the name family reached through Shona → Shauna → Seán. Its meaning is “God is gracious”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Scottish Anglicized form of Seonag ( =Joan) and an American variant of Shauna.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Shona (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Shona is used in English. Its origins include Scottish Gaelic.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Seonag, Shauna and Seán.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Shona is pronounced /ˈʃəʊnə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,414 girls were recorded with the name Shona between 1943 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 160 in 1970; its best national rank was #847 in 1970.

How common is Shona?

Shona had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 557,000
6 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 270,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
386,177 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shona sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 386,177 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shona. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shonas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shona was born before 1974 — so the typical Shona is around 51 today.

Median birth year
1974
About 51 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
39.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,401
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 39.7% of all recorded uses (958).

Is Shona rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1970 (160)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#847
1970

Spellings of Shona

Shona is not the most common spelling — Rhonda is, with 19.1% against Shona's 0.22%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Shona is used

Across 1910–2025, Shona was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 175,153 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Georgia1 in 100,000
  3. 3Louisiana1 in 100,000
  4. 4Mississippi1 in 100,000
  5. 5New York1 in 100,000
  6. 6Ohio1 in 100,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 100,000
  8. 8Alabama1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Shona has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shona around the world

Where Shona ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #5,927
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1974–2025
    #780
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2019
    #424
    in 2019
  • Ireland
    1969–2025
    #718
    in 2025
  • France
    1985–2023
    #7,586
    in 2023
  • Canada
    1991–2012
    #2,855
    in 2012
  • South Australia
    1956–2012
    #871
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Shona by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#847
1970
Peak year
1970
160 that year
First recorded
1943
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
2,414
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shona

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AlonaKeonaIlonaKionaDeonaElonaSedonaTeonaKeyonaShonnaOonaJonaShontaWynonaSimonaSonaTonaVeronaVionaZonaRionaZionaRomonaAnona

Names with a curve like Shona

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Shona, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DioneKareyLarondaPatrinaTraceeSebrinaMalisaCristiCarriMilissaMelyndaMarni

Sibling names for Shona

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Shona

Top names of 1970, Shona's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1970Girls' names starting with SScottish Girl Names