Jona

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.

• Spanish:/xona/○(machine-generated) model-generated

Readings marked model-generated were transcribed by a model; the others are quoted from the dictionary named.

Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Jona, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Mika
• Elia
• Marjorie
• Noa
• Germany

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Jona is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• German given name14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, United States, Netherlands, Belgium

  Languages: German, Dutch, English

  Also written Joenae, Jonae, Jóna, Jonaé, Jōnā

• Hindi given name6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Philippines, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Jôna, Jóna, Joṇa

• Albanian given name4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Albania, United States, Italy, Serbia

  Also written Jònà, Jonā, Jóna

• Bulgarian given name37 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Bulgaria, Croatia, United States, Philippines

  Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian

  Also written Йона, Yona, Jonah, Iona, Иона

• French given name8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Philippines, United States, Belgium

  Also written Jóna, Jônâ, Jöna, Jôna, Jônä

• a separate name4 spellings in the group

  Also written Joná, Jōnā, Jóna

• Polish given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, United States, Philippines, Netherlands

  Also written Jőňâ, Jóna

• Hungarian given name2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Philippines, Hungary, United States

  Also written Jóna

45 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

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 name·Dicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

• In German, from Hebrew yônāh 'dove'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In Dutch, Jonah (fictional prophet who preached to the people of Nineveh, Biblical character)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Welsh, Jonah, said to be author of the eponymous book

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Norwegian, Jonah (biblical book and character)

  as a word·kaikki.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.

• Yona Friedmanb. 1923HUnot in their usual nameHungarian-born French architect (1923–2019)
• Yona Yahavb. 1944ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli politician
• 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).

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.

78 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 38 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Is Jona a male or female name?

Jona is used for both men and women, depending on the country. National registers that list names by sex disagree: United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed under both sexes; Kosovo (ASK Kosovo): listed as female; Brazil (IBGE): listed under both sexes; Austria (Statistik Austria, 2024): listed as male. We don't publish a percentage split.

How do you pronounce Jona?

In Spanish /xona/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.

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).

What are other forms of the name Jona?

In the etymology graph, Jonas is a form of the same name in other languages.

Which countries have the most people with the surname Jona?

Mondonomo estimates about 629 thousand people named Sani in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold. After it come India, Türkiye, Indonesia and Pakistan; the country table on this page ranks them.

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.