Diona
Feminine
Diona sits between two unrelated names and takes something from each. Diane is Latin and belongs to a goddess of the hunt; Dion is Greek and built from the name of Zeus. The two have been confused in English for centuries because they begin the same way, and a spelling like this one belongs cleanly to neither. There is also a moon.
How old is the name Diona?
Diona first appears in US birth records in 1942 — 83 years ago. The typical Diona alive today was born around 1986, making them about 39 years old. About 1,400 people named Diona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Diona most popular?
Diona peaked in 1969, reaching #2003 nationally. See the whole 1969 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Greek name built from Zeus and a Latin one from the sky to Diona
The story of Diona
The Greek side has a small astronomical afterlife. In the sixteen seventies an Italian astronomer working in Paris discovered four moons of Saturn and named them after the Titans, siblings of the god the planet is named for, and one of those names is the Greek one behind this family. Nobody used his names for a century and a half; astronomers referred to the moons by number until a nineteenth-century catalog restored them. The moon in question is a ball of water ice about a thousand kilometres across with an enormous system of bright cliffs across one hemisphere, which turned out, when a spacecraft finally got close enough, to be fractures rather than the ice deposits everybody had assumed.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Two possible parents with different meanings. On the Latin side the sense runs back to a word about daylight and the sky, through the goddess. On the Greek side it belongs to Zeus. American families used both routes and the spelling records neither, so no single reading can be given without picking a side the letters do not pick.
How the name formed
- A Greek name built from Zeus and a Latin one from the sky
- Confused in English because they begin alike
- Diane and Dionne both in American use
- Diona belonging cleanly to neither
Related forms: Dione · Dionne
Pronouncing Diona
dee-OH-nuh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Greek says the name it comes from with three as well but places the weight differently, and the French Dionne is two syllables with the stress at the back.
Nicknames for Diona
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1942
- Most girls named
- 199455 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2003reached in 1969
- Change vs 2020
- −44.4%5 in 2021, from 9
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Diona in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dione in Greek — related form
- Dionne in French — related form
Dionas among us
people named Diona are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Diona sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The sound is soft, even and completely unproblematic.
- Dee is available immediately and is entirely unmarked.
- It connects to two genuinely ancient name families without repeating either.
- Diane, Dionne and Deona are all close enough to be confused constantly.
- There is no single meaning, because there is no single parent.
- It is firmly of the middle of the twentieth century.
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Diona
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Dionas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Diona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Diona in 2025?
- Diona is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Diona with classmates?
- Diona will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
Dorothy#421 · Donna#1962 · Deborah#862 · Debra#4460 · Diane#2607 · Doris#2895 · Denise#1673 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Diona? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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