Fiona


Fiona or Fionna is a feminine given name of Gaelic origins. It means white or fair, while the Irish name Fíona means 'of wine', being the genitive of fíon 'wine'. It was first used by the Scottish writer William Sharp under the pseudonym Fiona Macleod in 1894. Initially, the name was confined to Scotland but later it gained popularity in other countries, such as Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Australia, Germany and Canada.

Etymology

Fiona originates from the Gaelic word fionn, meaning white or fair, being a Romantic Era Latinised form; or an Anglicisation of the Irish name Fíona meaning 'of wine', being the genitive of fíon 'wine', from which is also derived the terms fíniúin, crann fíona, and craobhfhìona 'grape-vine'. An alternative suggested by Hanks is that Fíona means vine; this meaning appears in no Irish or Gaelic dictionary, except in the compounds crann fíona and craobhfhíona In ninth-century Welsh and Breton language Fion referred to the foxglove species and is also a female given name as in Ffion Hague.
It was used by the Scottish writer William Sharp under the pseudonym Fiona Macleod. Sharp may have drawn inspiration from the Gaelic variation of the name Catherine, namely Caitrìona. Fiona carries connotations of gentility and refinement, often suggesting aristocratic lineage for its bearer. Fiona is commonly shortened to Fi, with other variations including Fina, Fee, and Tiona.
Variations of the name Fiona include Gwenn in Breton, Gwen, and Wynne in Welsh. Masculine forms include Fion, Fionn, Finnán, Finnén, Finn, Gwyn and Wyn. The Scottish Gaelic feminine name Fionnghal is also sometimes equated with Fiona.

Popularity

Initially, the name remained largely confined to Scotland until the latter part of the 20th century when it gained popularity in other parts of Britain, Australia, and Canada. Additionally, the Ossianic poems of James Macpherson helped to familiarize the name in the English-speaking world. It experienced a surge in popularity during the latter half of the 1960s.
It was the 439th most popular female name in Scotland in 2023. Fiona was the 71st most popular name for baby girls born in 2023 in Germany. The name was the most common female name in the ranking of most popular names for baby girls born in Liechtenstein in 2022.In 2023, in Switzerland, Fiona was the 66th most popular name. In Australia it is the 138th most popular baby name since the 1930s. In New Zealand it was particularly popular during the 1960s until around 1980. In Canada, it was the 287th most popular baby girl name. In the US most girls named Fiona were born in the 21st century and the number of Fionas born per year was greater than 1,000 from 2009 until 2021. In the US, it has ranked among the top 1,000 most popular names for girls since 1990 and among the top 500 since 1999.

People with the given name

  • Fiona Adams, British photographer
  • Fiona Allen, English comedian and actress
  • Fiona Alpass, New Zealand academic
  • Fiona Apple, American singer
  • Fiona Argyle, Australian politician
  • Fiona Baan, Scottish-born American sports administrator
  • Fiona Balfour, Australian business executive
  • Fiona Bloom, music industry publicist
  • Fiona Bruce, BBC presenter
  • Fiona Button, English actress
  • Fiona Campbell , British alpine skier
  • Fiona Campbell , Scottish cricketer
  • Fiona Campbell, Australian opera singer
  • Fiona Campbell-Walter, British model
  • Fiona Kumari Campbell, Australian disability studies researcher and theorist
  • Fiona Clark, New Zealand photographer
  • Fiona Connor, New Zealand artist
  • Fiona Coyne, South African actress, author, playwright and presenter
  • Fiona Crawley, American tennis player
  • Fiona Crombie, Australian costume and production designer
  • Fiona Davis, Canadian author
  • Fiona Dawson, LGBT activist, writer, producer, and film director
  • Fiona Dourif, American actress
  • Fiona Doyle, Irish swimmer
  • Fiona M. Doyle, American scientist
  • Fiona Dunbar, English children's author and illustrator
  • Fiona Edgar, New Zealand professor of management
  • Fiona Fairhurst, British inventor, designer of the Speedo Fastskin swimsuit
  • Fiona Ferro, French tennis player
  • Fiona Flanagan, American singer known mononymously as Fiona
  • Fiona Fox, British writer and chief executive
  • Fiona Fullerton, English actress
  • Fiona Fung, Hong Kong singer
  • Fiona Fussi, Singaporean fashion model and actress
  • Fiona Gaunt, English actress
  • Fiona Gélin, French actress
  • Fiona Gell, Manx marine biologist and writer
  • Fiona Geminder, Australian businessperson
  • Fiona Givens, American writer, teacher, and speaker
  • Fiona Glasscott, Irish actress
  • Fiona Godlee, British-American journalist, first female editor of The British Medical Journal
  • Fiona Graham, Australian anthropologist and geisha
  • Fiona Gubelmann, American actress
  • Fiona Hammond, Australian water polo player
  • Fiona Highet, Scottish entomologist
  • Fiona Hill, British-American foreign affairs specialist and author
  • Fiona Kennedy, Scottish singer and actress
  • Fiona Leggate, British auto racing driver
  • Fiona Lowry, Australian painter
  • Fiona MacDonald, Scottish curler
  • Fiona J. Mackenzie, Scottish Gaelic singer
  • Fiona Macleod, pseudonym for English writer William Sharp
  • Fiona Macpherson, Scottish Philosopher
  • Fiona Mactaggart, British politician
  • Fiona Mangan, Irish road-cyclist
  • Fiona May, English-Italian athlete and actress
  • Fiona McLeod Hill, British political adviser
  • Fiona McLeod , Australian barrister and Labor politician
  • Fiona McFarlane, Australian author
  • Fiona Millar, British journalist and campaigner
  • Fiona O'Donnell, Scottish politician
  • Fiona O'Driscoll, Irish camogie player
  • Fiona O'Keeffe, American long-distance runner
  • Fiona O'Loughlin , Australian stand-up comedian
  • Fiona O'Loughlin , Irish politician
  • Fiona O'Malley, Irish politician
  • Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Irish actor
  • Fiona O'Sullivan, Irish footballer
  • Fiona Onasanya, British politician
  • Fiona Peterson, Australian academic
  • Fiona Phillips, British journalist and broadcaster
  • Fiona Pitt-Kethley, British poet, novelist and journalist
  • Fiona Richmond, English glamour model
  • Fiona Ritchie, American broadcaster
  • Fiona Robertson, Scottish judoka and wrestler
  • Fiona Robinson, Australian basketball and handball player
  • Fiona Scott Morton, American economist
  • Fiona Shaw, Irish actress
  • Fiona Sit, Hong Kong singer
  • Fiona Stanley, Australian epidemiologist and public health researcher
  • Fiona Staples, Canadian comic book artist
  • Fiona Urquhart, Scottish cricketer
  • Fiona Watt, British children's author
  • Fiona Watt, British scientist
  • Fiona Wood, Australian plastic surgeon and burns specialist
  • Fiona Xie, Singaporean television actress
  • Fiona Yuen, German-born Hong Kong model and actress
  • Fiona Zedde, Jamaican-born American fiction writer

    Fictional characters

  • Princess Fiona, the female lead in DreamWorks' Shrek franchise
  • Fiona, a character in Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation
  • Fionna Campbell, the gender-swapped version of Finn in the Adventure Time franchise
  • Fiona Fire Engine, a character from the television series Heroes of the City
  • Fiona Gallagher, daughter of Frank Gallagher in both the British television series Shameless and its American adaptation
  • Princess Fiona, sorceress in The Chronicles of Amber novels

    Other

  • Fiona, first Nile hippo imaged on ultrasound pre-natally
  • List of storms named Fiona