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Winona

#627 in 2025Girls' name

Firstborn daughter

Winona has been given to 12,953 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #627 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 466 recorded.

Babies named Winona, 2025

1 in 7,110

Winona over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Winona: meaning, origin, and history

Firstborn daughter

Dakota

What Winona means

Winona means “firstborn daughter”, associated with winúŋna.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Dakota winúŋna (“firstborn daughter”). While not originally used as a personal name by the Dakota, it has been adopted as such by English speakers. John Koontz suggested that the name was a compound of wi- (“female”) + no (“first”) + -na (a diminutive suffix) and thus a reflex of Proto-Siouan *rǫ/*nǫ (“one”). That root is otherwise unattested in the Sioux languages, which use reflexes of *wį(y)ą (“one”) instead, and a more prosaic analysis identifies the first elements of the name with winyan (“woman”).

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Winona is used in English. Its origins include Dakota.

Winona comes through Dakota winúŋna and sio-pro *rǫ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Winona is pronounced /wɪˈnoʊnə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 12,953 girls were recorded with the name Winona between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 466 in 2025; its best national rank was #407 in 1924.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,421 in 2020 to #627 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #4,065 in 2015 to #627 in 2025.

How common is Winona?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 7,110
466 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 3,450
0.03% of girls
Rank, 2025
#627
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
4,932 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Winona 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 2025 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 1001%
School of 5007%

Put another way: gather 4,932 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Winona. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Winonas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Winona was born before 1939 — so the typical Winona is around 86 today.

Median birth year
1939
About 86 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
18.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
19.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
5,352
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 18.8% of all recorded uses (2,430).

Is Winona 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
+107
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+794
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+3,438
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
12.59×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (466)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#407
1924

Spellings of Winona

Winona is not the most common spelling — Fiona is, with 32.4% against Winona's 12.4%.

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 Winona is used

Across 2016–2025, Winona was most concentrated in Maine — about 1 in 1,923 girls, against 1 in 7,740 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in 33,333).

352 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maine1 in 1,923
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 2,439
  3. 3Wisconsin1 in 2,703
  4. 4North Dakota1 in 2,778
  5. 5Oregon1 in 3,125
  6. 6Michigan1 in 4,000
  7. 7Colorado1 in 4,762
  8. 8Washington1 in 4,762

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.

Winona around the world

Where Winona 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
    #1,315
    in 2025
  • France
    1993–2025
    #5,350
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1993–2024
    #1,191
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1993–2013
    #818
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Winona

People whose public names include Winona, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Winona in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Winona. Linked forms have their own page here.

Wynona

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Winona by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#627
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 794
Best rank ever
#407
1924
Peak year
2025
466 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
12,953
Count in 2025
466

Names similar to Winona

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

WinterWinnieWinnonaWindyRomonaVeronaSimonaWynonaKeyonaWinifredIonaLonaSedonaRamonaFionaNonaDonaWinryWinnifredArizonaIlonaKeonaWinslowAlona

Names with a curve like Winona

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

ElouiseRomaHellenMillicentTheodoraGeorgieLeoraMavisRosalineGeorgianaLeonoraLouella

Sibling names for Winona

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 Winona

Top names of 2025, Winona's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1924Girls' names starting with W