Vona
Feminine · “Yew”
Vona is what is left of a Breton name after English has finished with it, and the tree at the bottom of it is the yew — a tree that has been planted in European graveyards for longer than anybody can account for.
How old is the name Vona?
Vona first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Vona alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 300 people named Vona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Vona most popular?
Vona peaked in 1891, reaching #1093 nationally. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Vona
The yew is everywhere in old European churchyards and nobody is sure why. The usual explanations — that the wood was needed for bows, that the trees predate the churches and the churches were built at existing sacred sites, that the foliage is poisonous to cattle and a walled yard kept them out — are all plausible and none is sufficient. What is certain is that the trees are frequently far older than the buildings beside them, sometimes by a thousand years, and that a Breton naming tradition built on that tree is drawing on something that was already ancient when the names were formed.
Meaningscholars disagree
Yew
If the name descends from Yvonne, the Breton and French name behind it is built on the word for a yew tree. It may equally be an American build of the eighteen-nineties, in which case there is no meaning at all. The record does not choose.
Pronouncing Vona
VOH-nuh
Two syllables, stress at the front. Nothing in the spelling is ambiguous.
Nicknames for Vona
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
- 1891
- Most girls named
- 192122 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1093reached in 1891
- Change vs 1969
- −16.7%5 in 1971, from 6
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.
Vona in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yvonne in French — related form
- Yvona in Breton — related form
Vonas among us
people named Vona 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
Vona 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
- It is short, firm and read correctly on sight.
- It is genuinely rare in current use.
- The spelling survives being dictated.
- Yvonne and Vonna are both nearby and hers will be heard as one of them.
- The name belongs to one American era.
- Two possible origins mean no meaning is certain.
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Vona
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Vonas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Vona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Vona in 2025?
- Vona is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Vona with classmates?
- Vona will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More V names
The most-given names starting with V, all years combined.
Virginia#525 · Victoria#54 · Valerie#127 · Vanessa#377 · Vivian#70 · Veronica#427 · Violet#13 · Vicki
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Vona? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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