Lona
Feminine
Lona is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 10,907 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Lona is a name with several possible parents and no documented one — the back of Leona, the front of Lonnie, or a short vowel-heavy name of exactly the shape the 1880s liked.
How old is the name Lona?
Lona was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lona alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 4,300 people named Lona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lona most popular?
Lona peaked in 1880, reaching #294 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 8,068 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Lona
Our story of Lona begins in a decade with a strong preference for two soft syllables. Lena, Lola, Nora, Ora and Ona were all in the same registers, and a name that borrowed a little from each of them would pass without comment on any certificate in the country. It went down across the American Midwest and South from the 1870s, peaked around 1890, and left no explanation — which is the honest answer for a great many names of that period.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No settled origin. Read as a form of Leona it is the Latin leo, 'lion'. Read through the Spanish it may be a shortening of Ilona, the Hungarian form of Helen, or of Leonor. It may equally be a coinage on the -ona ending that Ramona, Fiona and Winona also carry. Nothing is documented.
Pronouncing Lona
LOH-nuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. No variation between English accents.
Nicknames for Lona
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
- 1918198 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #294reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- −25.0%12 in 2025, from 16
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.
Lona in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ilona in Hungarian — related form
- Leona in English — related form
- Lona in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Lonas among us
people named Lona are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Lona
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Lona 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
Lona beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lona in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two soft syllables with no hard consonants and no pronunciation risk.
- Leona and Ilona are both available as longer forms with real histories.
- It is genuinely rare now while being entirely traditional in the registers.
- It has no documented meaning or parent name.
- It is strongly period-coded to the late nineteenth century.
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What they receive
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Lona
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lonas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,300 people named Lona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lona in 2025?
- Lona ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lona?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Lona — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lona with classmates?
- Lona will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lona
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Clementina#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lona? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lona and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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