Jona
given name · English · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Jona is a given name, most frequently recorded in India, where it is the 92nd most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: alternative form of Jonas (now preferred for the biblical prophet, but less common as a given name).
- YEYemen1 in 15◐
- CZCzechia1 in 282
- TRTürkiye1 in 416
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈258K ●
- #444 ●
- 12 ●
- Sources
- 408 ●
- 1 in 250 ◐
across 9 countries
of 16M given names
recorded for this name
4.5M records
Official registry-verified
Finland
Spellings & scripts●
20 other spellings are counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Sana in FR France, PK Pakistan, ES Spain and 2 more, Shauna in US United States, CA Canada, AU Australia and 1 more, Сания in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan and Sani in NG Nigeria, ID Indonesia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin●
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 24 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | #92 | 4,416,515 | 1.9M rec. | — | 218K | Soni | 273 |
| TR Türkiye | #321 | 877,312 | 953K rec. | — | #94 | Şen | 103 |
| YE Yemen | — | 267,173 | 236 rec. | — | — | Sanaa | 14 |
| RU Russia | #243 | 175,131 | 57K rec. | — | #122 | Сания | 127 |
| US United States | #433 | 164,680 | 957K rec. | 1 in 2K | 165K | Shauna | 408 |
| TH Thailand | #119 | 148,567 | 85K rec. | — | #92,533 | สุนีย์ | 128 |
| NG Nigeria | #39 | 117,517 | 129K rec. | — | listed | Sani | 76 |
| GB United Kingdom | #398 | 70,083 | 58K rec. | — | 36 | Shona | 159 |
| PK Pakistan | #91 | 59,582 | 8.3K rec. | — | listed | Sana | 113 |
| KR South Korea | #205 | 57,052 | 29K rec. | — | 1M | 선아 | 146 |
| PH Philippines | #568 | 39,362 | 34K rec. | — | 32K | Jona | 74 |
| CZ Czechia | #111 | 37,906△ | 2.7K rec. | 1 in 282 | 38K | Sona | 95 |
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- English40K35%
- Spanish17K15%
- Portuguese15K14%
- German7.8K7%
- Indonesian3.6K3%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| English | 39,851 | 35% |
| Spanish | 17,242 | 15% |
| Portuguese | 15,466 | 14% |
| German | 7,835 | 7% |
| Indonesian | 3,645 | 3% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
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.
Over time●
Show as table
| Year | records |
|---|---|
| 1922 | 5 |
| 1925 | 7 |
| 1926 | 5 |
| 1933 | 6 |
| 1937 | 6 |
| 1939 | 5 |
| 1942 | 7 |
| 1943 | 11 |
| 1944 | 5 |
| 1945 | 9 |
| 1946 | 8 |
| 1947 | 5 |
| 1948 | 5 |
| 1949 | 11 |
| 1950 | 7 |
| 1951 | 12 |
| 1952 | 7 |
| 1953 | 12 |
| 1954 | 22 |
| 1955 | 28 |
| 1956 | 20 |
| 1957 | 22 |
| 1958 | 21 |
| 1959 | 24 |
| 1960 | 29 |
| 1961 | 49 |
| 1962 | 39 |
| 1963 | 54 |
| 1964 | 57 |
| 1965 | 38 |
| 1966 | 39 |
| 1967 | 41 |
| 1968 | 38 |
| 1969 | 44 |
| 1970 | 44 |
| 1971 | 32 |
| 1972 | 27 |
| 1973 | 19 |
| 1974 | 33 |
| 1975 | 27 |
| 1976 | 29 |
| 1977 | 21 |
| 1978 | 32 |
| 1979 | 39 |
| 1980 | 34 |
| 1981 | 39 |
| 1982 | 38 |
| 1983 | 23 |
| 1984 | 24 |
| 1985 | 22 |
| 1986 | 24 |
| 1987 | 22 |
| 1988 | 25 |
| 1989 | 17 |
| 1990 | 21 |
| 1991 | 24 |
| 1992 | 15 |
| 1993 | 12 |
| 1994 | 18 |
| 1995 | 18 |
| 1996 | 17 |
| 1997 | 25 |
| 1998 | 22 |
| 1999 | 11 |
| 2000 | 15 |
| 2001 | 24 |
| 2002 | 16 |
| 2003 | 15 |
| 2004 | 16 |
| 2005 | 9 |
| 2006 | 8 |
| 2007 | 19 |
| 2008 | 14 |
| 2009 | 11 |
| 2010 | 15 |
| 2011 | 13 |
| 2012 | 18 |
| 2013 | 12 |
| 2014 | 14 |
| 2015 | 16 |
| 2016 | 16 |
| 2017 | 16 |
| 2018 | 17 |
| 2019 | 23 |
| 2020 | 25 |
| 2021 | 14 |
| 2022 | 21 |
| 2023 | 23 |
| 2024 | 26 |
| 2025 | 13 |
US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 90 years between 1922–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.
Notable people with this name●
- 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).
Evidence●
Attested in 75 sources across 38 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.9K | #6,152 |
| XK Kosovo | ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search) | — | 1.2K | #625 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 1.1K | #8,550 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 842 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 716 | #6,152 |
| AL Albania | INSTAT Albania — Search the name (given-name counts) | — | 687 | #715 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 559 | #9,308 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 551 | #2,578 |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024) | 2024 | 546 | #169 |
| HR Croatia | DZS — Učestalost osobnih imena (Popis 2021) | 2021 | 467 | — |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 455 | #3,406 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 308 | #3,484 |
Reference works 4
- 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)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 547 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Jona?
- We estimate roughly 258 thousand people bear Jona (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.
- In which country does Jona have the most bearers?
- Jona is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled soni.
- How common is Jona compared with other names?
- In India, Jona is the 92nd most common given name of 4,777,337 given names recorded there.
- 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.
- What does the name Jona mean?
- Recorded meaning: alternative form of Jonas (now preferred for the biblical prophet, but less common as a given name)
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jonaThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
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 92nd most common given name in India. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.