Meaning and Origin
What does the name Winona mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
User Submitted Origins
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.
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