Iona - feedback from those who have the name or know someone with it

[Babanynamehelp2025]

Hi,

We are seriously considering the name Iona for a baby girl, but have two potential concerns that I would love feedback on, especially from people with the name, or who know people with the name (especially if you used it for your daughter!).

1. Are there a lot of pronunciation issues, and if so how bad / annoying are these? We would pronounce it the Scottish way (eye-own-a). My guess is that there wouldn’t be that many pronunciation issues in the UK but that there might be abroad. Is that the case and if so, how big an issue have you found that to be?
2. Even though it is short in terms of number of letters, it feels like it might be a bit of a mouthful to always use the full name. Have you found this and if so, what nicknames have you used? We like “Io” but it seems more appropriate for a teenager or adult than a baby and I’m struggling to think of any reasonable alternatives

Any general feedback on the name, especially on whether you like it and any other things worth considering also very welcome!!

For a bit more context, we have Scottish family so it feels appropriate for us to use it, and it works with our surname (i.e. our surname isn’t a noun). We are also aware that the name is pronounced differently in Wales.

Thanks so much for any inputs

Me too!! … I scoot off now.

Lovely name. It would’ve been on my list but we do have a noun surname so nope. Never heard it shortened in any way but I think Io would be quite cool for any age. Never heard of the cruise ship. My only other association is the island and that’s no bad thing.

Lovely name. We have one in the family and i've always thought it was very pretty!

I've never liked the name, it just sounds like 'I own a'!

That was my name, but because I despised it so much I legally changed it to something else as soon as I hit 20! Kids used to take the piss out of my name at school. Hideous name, sorry

I know an 11-year-old Iona, and it's reasonably popular where I am (west coast of Scotland).

Thank you for the further feedback!! Seems generally positive but @Mybabyloveswires your feedback is concerning 😅. I’m sorry you had this experience. Would you mind sharing what area of the UK live in (assuming it is in the UK?) and what people used to make fun of regarding your name?

@AyeRight78 you are correct to guess that we don’t live in Scotland! We are based in the home counties, but have a lot of Scottish family and think it would be nice to honour that heritage by choosing a name with a link to Scotland. We have also both always liked the name (and find it hard to find other names we agree on 🤣)

I’ve also not seen the TV ads mentioned by a couple of posters. Not sure whether to look them up or whether they will then negatively influence me 🤣

I like it, i cannot believe anyone with the name Dick would be so careless when naming their child.
Because their are certain combinations of names that just shouldn't be used.

I went to school with an Iona, it was the first time I’d heard the name and really liked it. She has a twin sister but her name hasn’t stuck in my memory.

Lovely name - I'm not a 'cruiser' so that wouldn't even enter my head.

It’s the name of my husband’s ex- girlfriend, the one my MiL thought he should have married instead of me. I still think it’s a gorgeous name. Io/yo/yoyo are cute nicknames for a small child.
Never heard of the cruise ship.

It’s a school run by the Presentation Sisters around here https://www.iona.wa.edu.au.

Ha ha - when I was little I used to tell people my name was Julie, which was to my six year old mind, the nicest name a girl could have. Not like Iona, which was unusual and didn't feature on any pens, mugs or cards.

By the time I was pre-teen I came to liking it. As a teenager I came to love it. So many compliments on my name.

There are definitely more Ionas today than there were when I was young. My good friend's daughter shares it with me.

It’s a lovely name. I’ve never heard of this cruise ship connection, and it wouldn’t bother me anyway.

As for the pronunciation, I think it’s clear there is only one way to say it, as you highlighted 2
’eye-own-a’

definately choose it

I went to school in Greater London (zone 6 -Essex) all those years ago. i used to get called Igwana year 4/5/6. Then a bit older
Instead of I-own-a, it was “do you own a, or do you wanna”. Later on in my teenage years it was more sexual “do you wanna…..f* “
Kids were evil 30 years ago, they probably don’t bully so much these days.

I think I was asked "what do you own?" once.

I never experienced bullying on the basis of my name but I'm in Scotland so perhaps that makes a difference.

We loved the name but decided to make it our DD’s middle name in the end, rather than her first name. This was because of the potential for teasing as it sounds like ‘I own a’ so could lead to lots of additional comments on what DD owns! I hadn’t thought of the risk of change of surname on marriage either and that would be an additional factor althought nowadays it isnt necessarily expected to change surname or a double-barrelled surname could be adopted to avoid any unfortunate combination with ‘l own a’.

As an aside I really like Ione and Iolanthe, which remove the noun link issue

I'm in Scotland, so know a couple. One was in my DDs class for 7yrs and there was no teasing, shortening or pronunciation issues. It's a lovely name - you might be overthinking it a bit.

Kids these days have all sorts of names in their class, I don't think there's very much name teasing at all.

Lovely name.I visited the island years ago and I've never forgotten the sense of peace and calm that struck me the moment I got off the ferry there. Always meaning to go back one day.

Lovely name - I wanted to use it but it didn't work with our surname sadly.

It was a popular name in my son’s school year, mid 90s born and I knew a couple at work as well.

Every one of them is a Yonna. I’d not heard the Eye own a pronunciation until well into adulthood (and still pronounce the Island as Yonna on occasion)

But seeing as a huge number of people call the Welsh version a mispronunciation I think you’ll be ok.

Such a beautiful name

Beautiful name and a beautiful island; infinitely better than naming your child Muck

We had a boy in the end, but Iona had been high on our list for a girl.

It's just the noun-as-surname thing that you have to be cautious of. Obviously you know what your own surname is, but if she wants to change her name on marriage and ends up with a man with a noun as a surname, she'll either have to accept having a comedy name or otherwise keep her own name, even if she otherwise had been keen to share a single 'family name'.

It doesn't even have to be a rude, funny or uncommon noun as a surname - even if it were something like Hill, you could end up with people singing (or at least smiling as they immediately think of) the Lonely Goatherd song at her.