Meaning and Origin
What does the name Winona mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
Origin and Meaning of Winona
User Submitted Origins
Native American
80%
English
20%
User Submitted Meanings
- 2 people from Pennsylvania, U.S. agree the name Winona is of Native American origin and means "First Born Daughter".
- A submission from Idaho, U.S. says the name Winona means "First born" and is of Native American origin.
International Interest
Also see international interest
Wiktionary
From a Dakota Sioux descriptive term, Winúŋna, meaning "firstborn daughter." While not originally used as a personal name by the Dakota, it has been adopted as such by English speakers.
John Koontz suggested that the name was a compound of wi- (“female”) + no (“first”) + -na (a diminutive suffix) and thus a reflex of the Proto-Siouan numeral *rǫ/nǫ ("one"). That root is otherwise unattested in the Sioux languages, which use reflexes of *wį(y)ą ("one") instead, and a more prosaic analysis identifies the first elements of the name with winyan (“woman”).
- A female given name, used mainly in the United States.
- A city in Kansas
- A city, the county seat of Winona County, Minnesota.
- A city, the county seat of Montgomery County, Mississippi.
- A city in Missouri
- A town in Texas