Winona

Where Winona comes from

From Dakota winúŋna (“firstborn daughter”). While not originally used as a personal name by the Dakota, it has been adopted as such by English speakers. John Koontz suggested that the name was a compound of wi- (“female”) + no (“first”) + -na (a diminutive suffix) and thus a reflex of Proto-Siouan *rǫ/*nǫ (“one”). That root is otherwise unattested in the Sioux languages, which use reflexes of *wį(y)ą (“one”) instead, and a more prosaic analysis identifies the first elements of the name with winyan (“woman”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Winona
  • Dakota
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #738 among girls — 6 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1924
    Peak, #405
    289 babies named Winona — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1939
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #593.
  4. 1959
    Winona LaDuke born
    author and activist
  5. 1971
    Winona Ryder born
    American actress
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Dakota, used mainly in the United States.
Namesakes
  • Winona Ryder · American actress, born 1971
  • Winona LaDuke · author and activist, born 1959
  • Winona Branch Sawyer · American writer, 1847–1938
  • Winona Littleheart · American professional wrestler, 1961–2020
  • Winona Winter · actor, 1889–1940

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.