Wenonah
Feminine · “first-born daughter (Dakota)”
Wenonah is the spelling Longfellow gave Hiawatha's mother, and his verse fixes how to say it: 'And she called her name Wenonah,' with the stress on the middle syllable. Spelled Winona, the same name belongs to a Dakota legend told on the Mississippi at Maiden Rock.
How old is the name Wenonah?
Wenonah first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Wenonah alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 200 people named Wenonah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Wenonah most popular?
Wenonah peaked in 1916, reaching #1445 nationally. See the whole 1916 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Winona (Dakota) to Wenonah
The story of Wenonah
In The Song of Hiawatha (1855), Nokomis bears a daughter: 'And she called her name Wenonah, / As the first-born of her daughters.' The trochaic line, modeled on the Finnish Kalevala, puts the weight on the middle syllable, we-NO-nah. In the poem Wenonah is Hiawatha's mother, deserted by the West Wind, Mudjekeewis, and she dies soon after his birth. A Dakota legend attached to Lake Pepin, the wide stretch of the Mississippi between Minnesota and Wisconsin, tells of a young woman called Winona who leaped from a bluff rather than marry a man she had not chosen; the bluff is still called Maiden Rock, and so is the Wisconsin village beside it.
Meaning
first-born daughter (Dakota)
From the Dakota word for a first-born daughter, which Longfellow took into English as Wenonah and which is more often written Winona.
How the name formed
- WinonaDakota
- WenonahLongfellow's spelling
Related forms: Winona
Pronouncing Wenonah
weh-NOH-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the middle one, as Longfellow's meter requires; the final h is silent.
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
- 1903
- Most girls named
- 191626 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1445reached in 1916
- Change vs 1990
- +20.0%6 in 2017, from 5
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.
Wenonah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Winona in English — spelling variant
Wenonahs among us
people named Wenonah 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
Wenonah 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
- A documented literary history and a clear meaning.
- A famous poem settles how to say it.
- Rare today, so it will seldom be shared.
- Most people know the spelling Winona and will write that.
- It reached most American families through a poem by a non-Native writer, and some Native readers regard such names as borrowed; the Dakota word behind it is real, and the family's own connection to it is what gives the choice its footing.
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Wenonah
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Wenonahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Wenonah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Wenonah in 2025?
- Wenonah is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Wenonah with classmates?
- Wenonah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More W names
The most-given names starting with W, all years combined.
Wanda#5917 · Wendy#1341 · Willie#10107 · Wilma#3645 · Whitney#1043 · Willow#44 · Winifred#922 · Willa#422
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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