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.

Notes

  1. ↑ ""Iona"". Baby Name Wizard. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  2. ↑ ""Iona"". Baby Names World. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  3. ↑ Watson (1926) pp. 87–90
  4. ↑ Mac an Tàilleir (2003) p. 67.
  5. 1 2 Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 80
  6. ↑ Watson, Celtic Place-Names, p. 88
  7. ↑ Broderick, George (2013). "Some island names in the former 'Kingdom of the Isles': a reappraisal" (PDF). Journal of Scottish Name Studies. 7: 1–28: 13, fn.30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-08. Retrieved 2018-01-21.
  8. ↑ Fraser (2009) p. 71.

References

  • Fraser, James E. (2009). From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795. The New Edinburgh History of Scotland. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1232-1.
  • Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
  • Mac an Tàilleir, Iain (2003). "Placenames" (PDF). Edinburgh: Scottish Parliament. p. 67. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  • Watson, W.J. (1926) The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland. Reprinted with an introduction by Simon Taylor. Birlinn: Edinburgh, 2004. ISBN 1-84158-323-5
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