Jona
given name · Latin script
Meaning: alternative form of Jonas (now preferred for the biblical prophet, but less common as a given name)
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/dʒnə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Jona is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country. In Türkiye it is the 27th most common surname.
- NGNigeria≈1 in 297as Sani(inferred from the name graph)
- TRTürkiye≈1 in 411as Şen
- ARArgentina1 in 2.7Kas Sena
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Jona itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- #345 (measured from records)
- 12 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 459 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 297 (inferred from the name graph)
≈720,000 named Sani, est.
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Nigeria, est., as Sani
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
20 other spellings are counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Sana in PK Pakistan, MA Morocco, Sani in NG Nigeria, ID Indonesia, Soni in IN India and Şen in TR Türkiye.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
alternative form of Jonas (now preferred for the biblical prophet, but less common as a given name)
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Jona counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈720,000 est. | ≈1 in 297 | listed | Sani | 63 |
| IN India | #78 | 218,303as Sen | 1 in 6.1K | 218K | Soni | 293 |
| TR Türkiye | #27 | ≈200,000 est. | ≈1 in 411 | #94 | Şen | 125 |
| PK Pakistan | #597 | ≈33,000 est. | ≈1 in 7K | listed | Sana | 133 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈32,000 est. | ≈1 in 8.2K | listed | Sani | 151 |
| AR Argentina | — | 16,831as Sena | 1 in 2.7K | 17K | Jona | 39 |
| MA Morocco | — | ≈7,300 est. | ≈1 in 4.8K | listed | Sana | 96 |
| FI Finland | — | 3,007as Suni | 1 in 1.9K | 26K | Sanna | 10 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Jona is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Venezia, and others; pigeon
as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…
In German, from Hebrew yônāh 'dove'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In Dutch, Jonah (fictional prophet who preached to the people of Nineveh, Biblical character)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Welsh, Jonah, said to be author of the eponymous book
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Norwegian, Jonah (biblical book and character)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Yonah Gerondib. 1210ESnot in their usual nameSpanish rabbi
- Jona von Ustinovb. 1892GBGerman-British journalist, diplomat and spy
- Yona Kesseb. 1907ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli politician
- Yona Friedmanb. 1923HUnot in their usual nameHungarian-born French architect (1923–2019)
- Jona Senilagakalib. 1929FJPrime Minister of Fiji (1929-2011)
- Yona Yahavb. 1944ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli politician
- Yona Wallachb. 1944ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli poet (1944–1985)
- Jona Lenderingb. 1964NLDutch historian
- Yona Kosashvilib. 1970ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli chess player and surgeon
- Jona Xiaob. 1989CNChinese actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 78 sources across 38 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 156 | #21,093 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 141 | #2,380 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 105 | — |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 60 | #4,446 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 23 | — |
Reference works 6
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Jona a male or female name?
- Jona is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- How do you pronounce Jona?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒnə/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Jona mean, and where does it come from?
- alternative form of Jonas (now preferred for the biblical prophet, but less common as a given name) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Jona have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 721 thousand people named Sani in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold.
- What are other forms of the name Jona?
- In the etymology graph, Jonas is a form of the same name in other languages.
- How common is the name Jona?
- In India, the national register counted 218,303 people named Sen, about 1 in 6.1 thousand residents.
- How common is Jona compared with other names?
- In Türkiye, Jona is the 27th most common surname of 619,652 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Jona?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jonaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Jona” — the 27th most common surname in Türkiye. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.