Iona is a given name that is taken from the Scottish island of Iona, [1] [2] which has a particular significance in the history of Christianity. The derivation of this island name itself is uncertain. The earliest forms of the name enabled place-name scholar William J. Watson to state that it originally meant something like "yew-place". [3]
The modern English name of the island comes from the Irish Ioua, [4] [5] which was either Adomnán's attempt to make the Gaelic name fit Latin grammar or a genuine derivative from Ivova ("yew place"). [6] Ioua eventually became Iona, first attested from c.1274, [7] and results from a transcription mistake resulting from the similarity of "n" and "u" in Insular Minuscule. [8]
Other speculative suggestions have been made for the derivation such as an Old Norse origin from Hiōe meaning "island of the den of the brown bear". [5]
Iona is also the Russian form of the male name Jonah.