Entry № 11546 · Dakota origin

Winona Winona — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ wih-NO-nah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Dakota
Meaning
"Firstborn daughter"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Dakota)

A name that means "firstborn daughter".

Winona comes from the Dakota Sioux Wenonah — traditionally given to a firstborn daughter. In Dakota tradition, the name is one of a set assigned by birth order. The city of Winona, Minnesota is named for a Dakota legend.

Winona was popularised by the actress Winona Ryder (born 1971), whose family named her after the city. Today Winona is rising as a girls' name in the U.S.

Firstborn daughter. The Dakota birth-order name.

The name in its native script.

Winona
Transliteration
Winona
Pronunciation
/ wɪˈnoʊ.nə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Winona stands.

Winona does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Winonas before her.

Real people
Winona Ryder
American actress.
born 1971
Winona LaDuke
American Indigenous activist.
born 1959
In fiction
Wenonah
Mother of Hiawatha in Longfellow's poem.
1855 poem

Names connected to Winona.

The number behind Winona.

4

The Builder

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Winona reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.