Yona

Locally spelled 연희 in KR South Korea, MO Macao and Yeonhee in US United States.

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.

Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.

Yona is one spelling over 5 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• English25%

  meaning unclear in OCR

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• French19%

  Hebrew origin, from yona ‘dove, pigeon’. Biblical name now used only for girls.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  Hebrew name associated here with « dove ».

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  Variante de Jonas, de l’hébreu Yônāh « colombe ».

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• Swahili12%

  Jonah (book of the Old Testament of the Bible)

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

• Indonesian11%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Yona in Indonesian.

• Spanish7.8%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Yona in Spanish.

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

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

• Noam
• Erez
• Tal
• Lior
• Aviv
• Ori
• Yael
• Paloma
• Israel
• Noa
• Ari
• Dove

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.

Yona is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Australia

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Yönä, Yoná, Ŷona, Yônā, Yõnã

• French given name7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Tanzania, United States, Belgium

  Also written Yöna, Yoná, Yôna, Yonà

• Indonesian given name5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Tanzania, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written 'Yona, Yona', Yoná

• Hindi given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Tanzania

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Yonã

• Bulgarian given name37 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Bulgaria, Croatia, United States, Philippines

  Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian

  Also written Jona, Йона, Jonah, Iona, Иона

54 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.

Yona is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Jonas; pomba; Jonah; pigeon

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

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.

• Jonah Gogolb. 1505not in their usual namePolish bishop
• Yona Bogaleb. 1908ETfirst leader of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel
• Yona Friedmanb. 1923HUHungarian-born French architect (1923–2019)
• Yona Fisherb. 1932ILIsraeli art curator
• Yona Levyb. 1943ILIsraeli actress
• Yona Yahavb. 1944ILIsraeli politician
• Yona Wallachb. 1944ILIsraeli poet (1944–1985)
• Yona Melnikb. 1949ILIsraeli judoka
• Yona Elianb. 1950ILIsraeli actress
• Yona Kosashvilib. 1970ILIsraeli chess player and surgeon

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).

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

What does the name Yona mean, and where does it come from?

Hebrew origin, from yona ‘dove, pigeon’. Biblical name now used only for girls. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).

How do you pronounce Yona?

A machine transcription gives /ˈjoʊnə/ (IPA) for English.

Is Yona a male or female name?

Yona is used for both men and women, depending on the country. National registers that list names by sex disagree: France (INSEE, 2024): listed as female; Brazil (IBGE, 2022): listed as female; United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed under both sexes. We don't publish a percentage split.

In which country does Yona have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 42 thousand people named 연희 in South Korea, more than in any other country we hold.

How common is the name Yona?

In Brazil, the national register counted 1,057 people named Yona in 2022, about 1 in 200 thousand residents.

How common is Yona compared with other names?

In South Korea, Yona is the 148th most common given name of 67,037 given names recorded there.