Monna
Feminine
Monna has three unrelated sources and the record does not choose between them. It can be an Irish name meaning noble, a clipping of Monica, or the Italian word for madam, which is a contraction of a phrase meaning my lady. The doubled n points slightly toward the Italian and does not settle anything.
How old is the name Monna?
Monna first appears in US birth records in 1899 — 126 years ago. The typical Monna alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 600 people named Monna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Monna most popular?
Monna peaked in 1933, reaching #937 nationally. See the whole 1933 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From An Irish name, a clipping of Monica, and an Italian title to Monna
Our story of Monna
The Italian word is worth knowing because it turns up in a place everybody has seen. It is a contraction of a phrase meaning my lady, used before a woman's name as a courtesy title in medieval and Renaissance Italian, and it survives in the traditional title of the most famous portrait in the world, where the first word is that title and the second is the sitter's given name. So the picture is called Madam Lisa, and a great many English speakers take the first word for a name. That is a fair illustration of what happens to titles: used often enough in front of a name, they get absorbed into it, and within a few generations nobody can hear the difference.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Three candidates with unrelated meanings. The Irish name is usually read as noble; Monica's own origin is North African and unrecoverable; the Italian word is a title rather than a name. Each gives a different answer, the spelling records none of them, and reference works that pick one are choosing rather than reporting.
How the name formed
- An Irish name, a clipping of Monica, and an Italian title
- All three arriving at the same spelling
- The doubled n pointing slightly toward the Italian
- Monna in American records around nineteen hundred
Related forms: Monna · Muadhnait
Pronouncing Monna
MON-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the vowel of on. Mona with a single n is usually said with a long o, so the doubled letter here does real work: the two spellings are different sounds rather than variants.
Nicknames for Monna
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
- 1899
- Most girls named
- 193445 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #937reached in 1933
- Change vs 1970
- −50.0%5 in 1972, from 10
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.
Monna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Monna in Italian — related form
- Muadhnait in Irish — related form
Monnas among us
people named Monna 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
Monna 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 doubled n settles a vowel that the single-n spelling leaves open.
- It is short, clear and immediately sayable.
- It has three respectable ancestries and a family can choose which it means.
- Mona is far commoner and this spelling will be converted into it.
- The three possible sources give three unrelated meanings.
- It is firmly of the earlier twentieth century.
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Monna
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Monnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Monna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Monna in 2025?
- Monna is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Monna with classmates?
- Monna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Monna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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