Fiona
Fiona was given to 654 girls in 2025, #470 among girls’ names; 33,964 Americans have been recorded with it since 1942 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 33,500 Americans named Fiona and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 9 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Fiona by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Fiona mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Fiona is “a female given name from Scottish Gaelic, in regular use since the 20th century, first in Scotland, then in England.” Its etymology gives the sense “fair, white” (fionn).
From Irish fionn (“fair, white”). In use before 1713. Popularized by James Macpherson, and perhaps by the 19th-century Scottish writer William Sharp, who chose “Fiona Macleod” as his pen name.
(Sara Duterte): After the fictional character Princess Fiona from the Shrek series, who transforms from princess to ogre.
/fiˈoʊnə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Fiona?
#470 among girls’ names, 2025
Fiona fell from #219 in 2015 to #470 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.84 to 0.41 per 1,000.
1,683 babies in 2017, the peak
Fiona peaked in 2017, when 1,683 girls were given it, #180 among girls’ names. The 654 births of 2025 are 39% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 654 | #470 | 0.41 |
| 2024 | 787 | #405 | 0.49 |
| 2023 | 767 | #400 | 0.48 |
| 2022 | 881 | #360 | 0.54 |
| 2021 | 1,073 | #299 | 0.65 |
| 2020 | 1,089 | #295 | 0.67 |
| 2019 | 1,250 | #265 | 0.74 |
| 2018 | 1,414 | #224 | 0.83 |
| 2017 | 1,683 | #180 | 1.0 |
| 2016 | 1,560 | #211 | 0.88 |
Every recorded year (80)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,495 | #219 | 0.84 |
| 2014 | 1,648 | #204 | 0.92 |
| 2013 | 1,640 | #197 | 0.93 |
| 2012 | 1,503 | #209 | 0.85 |
| 2011 | 1,211 | #266 | 0.69 |
| 2010 | 1,265 | #258 | 0.71 |
| 2009 | 1,051 | #314 | 0.57 |
| 2008 | 964 | #346 | 0.51 |
| 2007 | 918 | #354 | 0.48 |
| 2006 | 991 | #333 | 0.52 |
| 2005 | 844 | #371 | 0.46 |
| 2004 | 970 | #328 | 0.53 |
| 2003 | 885 | #351 | 0.48 |
| 2002 | 858 | #347 | 0.48 |
| 2001 | 694 | #414 | 0.39 |
| 2000 | 603 | #461 | 0.33 |
| 1999 | 552 | #476 | 0.31 |
| 1998 | 485 | #520 | 0.27 |
| 1997 | 459 | #522 | 0.26 |
| 1996 | 375 | #610 | 0.21 |
| 1995 | 252 | #790 | 0.14 |
| 1994 | 210 | #908 | 0.12 |
| 1993 | 196 | #964 | 0.11 |
| 1992 | 180 | #1,033 | 0.10 |
| 1991 | 220 | #891 | 0.12 |
| 1990 | 204 | #928 | 0.11 |
| 1989 | 159 | #1,061 | 0.09 |
| 1988 | 131 | #1,167 | 0.07 |
| 1987 | 109 | #1,284 | 0.06 |
| 1986 | 94 | #1,370 | 0.05 |
| 1985 | 90 | #1,411 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 68 | #1,620 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 88 | #1,360 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 73 | #1,602 | 0.04 |
| 1981 | 80 | #1,505 | 0.05 |
| 1980 | 63 | #1,752 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 65 | #1,695 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 52 | #1,896 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 58 | #1,763 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 56 | #1,721 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 58 | #1,658 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 52 | #1,741 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 68 | #1,435 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 69 | #1,418 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 59 | #1,603 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 60 | #1,585 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 67 | #1,426 | 0.04 |
| 1968 | 50 | #1,633 | 0.03 |
| 1967 | 71 | #1,287 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 52 | #1,557 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 38 | #1,866 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 44 | #1,756 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 35 | #1,990 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 26 | #2,375 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 35 | #1,966 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 20 | #2,762 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 16 | #3,021 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 18 | #2,788 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,769 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 10 | #3,994 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,403 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 10 | #3,803 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,348 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #5,838 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 7 | #4,514 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 6 | #4,866 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 6 | #4,843 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 7 | #3,816 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 19 | #2,021 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 9 | #3,259 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Fiona a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Fiona has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 80 years of records.
Girls and boys named Fiona: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Fiona, and how old are they?
33,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 33,964 Americans ever recorded as Fiona. The median Fiona alive today is 14 years old; half are between 9 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 32,179 people named Fiona (32,128 women and girls, 51 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 28,668 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 18 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 219 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 871 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,470 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 14,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 15,800 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Fiona born?
The states with the most babies named Fiona are New York, California and Pennsylvania, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 62 | #270 | 1.8× |
| California | 60 | #544 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 45 | #248 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 43 | #243 | 1.3× |
| Massachusetts | 39 | #146 | 2.5× |
| New Jersey | 34 | #242 | 1.3× |
| Virginia | 31 | #267 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 25 | #357 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 23 | #1,169 | 0.3× |
| Florida | 22 | #743 | 0.6× |
Where Fiona is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Fiona is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1942 it was given 2.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Fiona with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 35,455 babies since 1880, Fiona is the most given (96% of them). In 2025 it was given to 654 of their 667 babies (98%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Fiona
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Fiona and names like it
- Compare Fiona and FionnaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sFiona peaked in 2017.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Fiona since 1910.
- Scottish Gaelic namesWiktionary’s origin for Fiona: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Fiona.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Fiona alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with FMost given first.