# Winona (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/winona/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “firstborn daughter”, “female”, “first”, “one”, “woman” |
| Pronunciation | /wɪˈnoʊnə/, 3 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Wenona, Wenonah, Wynona |
| US babies named this | 12,953 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 0 / 12,953 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 221, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

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”).

## What it means

Winona is grouped under daughter.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 20 | 6,551 |
| 2012 | 34 | 4,381 |
| 2013 | 33 | 4,416 |
| 2014 | 37 | 4,097 |
| 2015 | 37 | 4,066 |
| 2016 | 69 | 2,592 |
| 2017 | 77 | 2,382 |
| 2018 | 96 | 2,047 |
| 2019 | 127 | 1,666 |
| 2020 | 154 | 1,421 |
| 2021 | 175 | 1,300 |
| 2022 | 273 | 977 |
| 2023 | 306 | 880 |
| 2024 | 384 | 734 |
| 2025 | 466 | 627 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 4 | 4,688 |
| 2011 | 3 | 5,785 |
| 2013 | 6 | 3,536 |
| 2014 | 3 | 5,691 |
| 2015 | 7 | 3,252 |
| 2016 | 7 | 3,214 |
| 2017 | 11 | 2,341 |
| 2018 | 5 | 3,985 |
| 2019 | 7 | 3,151 |
| 2020 | 9 | 2,615 |
| 2021 | 12 | 2,201 |
| 2022 | 24 | 1,326 |
| 2023 | 23 | 1,371 |
| 2024 | 33 | 1,036 |
| 2025 | 24 | 1,315 |

## People named Winona

- Winona Ryder, American actress (born 1971)
- Winona LaDuke, author and activist

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.