Winona
Feminine · “firstborn daughter”
Winona comes from the Dakota language, where it was the name traditionally given to a family's first daughter — a word with a job to do before it was ever a name on a chart. It has been in American use since record-keeping began, carried along by a nineteenth-century poem and by a river town in Minnesota that still bears it. Three syllables, the middle one long and open, with Winnie waiting inside it.
How old is the name Winona?
Winona was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Winona alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 6,300 people named Winona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Winona most popular?
Winona peaked in 1924, reaching #405 nationally. Today it ranks #627, 222 places below that high. See the whole 1924 chart.
Winona appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Wenonah to Winona
The story of Winona
Winona is an anglicized spelling of the Dakota name Wenonah, used for the firstborn daughter of a family. It spread into wider American usage through the upper Mississippi valley in the nineteenth century, where the Minnesota river city of Winona took the same name. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gave the form Wenonah to Hiawatha's mother in The Song of Hiawatha in 1855, and the poem's enormous nineteenth-century readership put the name in front of English speakers across the country. It has stayed on American records ever since, quietly, without ever climbing high.
Meaning
firstborn daughter, in Dakota
In Dakota (Sioux) tradition the name marked birth order — the eldest daughter of a family.
How the name formed
- Wenonah
- Winona
Related forms: Wenonah · Wynona · Wenona
Pronouncing Winona
wih-NOH-nuh
Stress falls on the middle syllable. Some speakers open the first syllable to WY-, but wih- is the usual American pronunciation.
Nicknames for Winona
High
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
- 2025466 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #405reached in 1924
- Change vs 2022
- +70.7%466 in 2025, from 273
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.
Winona in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wenonah in Dakota — same name
- Wynona in English — spelling variant
- Wenona in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Winonas among us
people named Winona are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,449 born in 2025 was named Winona
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Winona
- #627
- Winona on the 2025 chart
- #453
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Winona went to 466 girls in 2025, but Wynonna, Wynona and Winnona and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 604, which makes it the 453rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 174 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,661 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 3,449 for Winona 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 Leatha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Winona's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leatha climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leatha's path sketches the road Winona is walking now.
Winona is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Winona is headed
Winona looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 58% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Winona beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Winona in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two ready-made short forms, Winnie and Nona, both of which also work as full names in their own right.
- A documented origin with a plain meaning, which is more than most names can offer a curious child.
- On American records continuously since the earliest years of the count, so it is old without being tied to one decade.
- Rare enough in classrooms that a child is unlikely to share it, while the spelling stays familiar enough to be read on sight.
- The spelling Wynonna, made familiar by a country singer, causes real confusion — expect to spell Winona aloud fairly often, and to see it written back with a Y.
- The name carries a specific cultural meaning in Dakota tradition, tied to being the eldest daughter. Worth knowing what you are borrowing, and worth being able to explain it.
- Living bearers skew strongly toward older generations, so it may read as a grandmother's name to some ears — which is precisely the ground vintage names come back from.
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What they receive
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Winona
Feminine · #627 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Winonas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,300 people named Winona are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Winona?
- Winona is the most-used spelling in US records — 466 of the 604 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Wynonna, Wynona, Winnona and Wynnona.
- How popular is the name Winona in 2025?
- Winona ranks #627 among US girl names in 2025, with 466 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Winona?
- About 1 in every 3,449 US girls born in 2025 was named Winona — 466 in all.
- Will my child share the name Winona with classmates?
- Winona will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Winona
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lexi#628 · Maliyah#626 · Rivka#628 · Noah#624 · Sariyah#624 · Azariah#630 · Cassandra#630 · Andi#632
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Winona? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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