Iona
Feminine
Iona is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 12,251 girls against 10 boys since 1880.
Iona is a small island off the west coast of Scotland where Irish monks founded a monastery in 563, and from which Christianity spread across northern Britain.
How old is the name Iona?
Iona was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Iona alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 3,500 people named Iona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Iona most popular?
Iona peaked in 1918, reaching #317 nationally. Today it ranks #2645, 2,328 places below that high. See the whole 1918 chart.
Iona appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Ioua to Iona
The story of Iona
Columba came from Ireland to Iona in 563 and founded the monastery from which Scotland and northern England were largely converted; the Book of Kells may have been begun there. The island's name became a girls' name in nineteenth-century Scotland and spread through English use. It appears in American records from the 1880s and peaked around 1918.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The island's Gaelic name is Ì or Ì Chaluim Chille. The form Iona appears to have arisen from a scribal misreading of Ioua in Adomnán's Life of Columba — an n written for a u. The name in use is therefore probably a copying error made permanent, and its underlying meaning is unrecovered.
How the name formed
- Ioua
- Iona
Related forms: Ì Chaluim Chille · Ione · Ione
Pronouncing Iona
eye-OH-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Scottish speakers often say ee-OH-nuh.
Nicknames for Iona
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1918404 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #317reached in 1918
- Change vs 2022
- −14.5%65 in 2025, from 76
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.
Iona in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ì Chaluim Chille in Gaelic — related form
- Ione in English — related form
- Ione in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Washington. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Ionas among us
people named Iona are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 24,727 born in 2025 was named Iona
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Iona
- #2645
- Iona on the 2025 chart
- #878
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Iona went to 65 girls in 2025, but Iyonna and Ionna are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 82, which makes it the 878th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,767 places above the chart.
- Iona65
- Iyonna9
- Ionna8
About 1 girl in 19,601 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 24,727 for Iona itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Isabell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Iona's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Isabell climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Isabell's path sketches the road Iona is walking now.
Iona sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Iona is headed
Iona should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Iona beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Iona in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A real and historically consequential place stands behind it.
- The scribal-error story is a genuinely interesting piece of documented history.
- Three syllables built entirely of open vowels, which carries well.
- The underlying meaning is unrecovered, and the name itself may be a copying error.
- The first vowel splits between a Scottish and an English reading.
- It is period-coded to the early twentieth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Iona
Feminine · #2645 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ionas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,500 people named Iona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Iona?
- Iona is the most-used spelling in US records — 65 of the 82 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Iyonna and Ionna.
- How popular is the name Iona in 2025?
- Iona ranks #2645 among US girl names in 2025, with 65 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Iona?
- About 1 in every 24,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Iona — 65 in all.
- Will my child share the name Iona with classmates?
- Iona will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Iona
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Caliana#2645 · Aaira#2645 · Wylie#2645 · Henrietta#2645 · Mahogany#2645 · Amaiah#2645 · Charlize#2645 · Esra#2645
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Iona? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Iona and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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