Name of the Day: Oona
Today’s choice is simple and exotic at once – but both her meaning and the most logical spelling are open to debate.
Thanks to Nicole (aka Dirty Hippy) for suggesting our Name of the Day: Oona.
With choices like Mia and Ava topping the charts, plenty of parents are searching for the next simple, two-syllable choice for girls. We’ve suggested that Isla might be a contender; there’s also Anya, Noa and Luna.
But what about Oona?
She has an authentically Irish feel, but it’s rare on both sides of the Atlantic. While she appears sparingly in the US census records, she’s never ranked in the Top 1000. And while she’s slightly more familiar in Europe, she’s far from common.
Variant spellings include Oonagh, which feels even more aggressively Irish, and the Latinate Una. Una regularly ranked in the US Top 1000 from 1880 through 1944, and while she never went higher than the 300s, appears to be the most popular.
But are Una, Oona and Oonagh the same name? There are at least three possible meanings:
- The name could derive from the Latin for one. This connects to the spelling Una, but seems like a stretch for the other two variants;
- Some sites indicate that the name means hunger or famine, but we’re hard-pressed to find the etymology behind that claim;
- The Irish uan, for lamb, could also be the name’s source.
There’s also a saint who might’ve inspired the moniker. In the 600s, a noblewoman called Hunna devoted her life to serving the poor in France. She’s also known as St. Una. That places the earliest use of the name far earlier than most records suggest.
Una also appears in Edmund Spenser’s 16th century epic The Faerie Queen. She represents truth, especially the true religion. Spenser wrote just as Queen Elizabeth I had reaffirmed the Church of England; in the poem, a character called Duessa represents evil, especially the Roman Catholic Church. It’s quite clear that Spenser chose Una to mean one, first or possibly unity – but with a saint bearing the name a thousand years earlier, it’s difficult to say he was the first to use it.
Oona was also the name playwright Eugene O’Neill chose for his daughter in 1919. She grew up to marry Charlie Chaplin – four decades her senior.
Other Oonas and Unas have an otherworldly quality. A fairy named Oona features in the 1985 fantasy movie Legend; a genus of butterflies is known as Una. Princess Oona is a member of Donald Duck’s extended family, though you’ll only find her in European Disney publications, especially in Scandinavia.
If Oona is going to rise, it’s not her meaning or historic uses but her simple and intriguing sound that will have to propel her to greater use. And that could happen – besides the popularity of the name’s style, there’s also the trend for vowels. With Owen and Olivia, Theo and Juno sounding quite current, Oona fits in perfectly.
As for the spelling question? We’re torn. While Oonagh seems too complicated, at least in the US, both Oona and Una seem like appealing options for a modern child. Perhaps it’s simply a question of what draws you to the name – if you’re hoping for an Irish heritage choice, the “oo” spelling has a lot of oomph. The “u” seems a bit more restrained – but likely to be confused with Uma.
Either way, we think this one has a lot of spirit and style.
Filed under: Kiss Me I'm Irish, Literary Babes, Names for Girls, Names of the Day, O Baby!, Saints | 16 Comments
Tags: Oona, Oonagh, Una
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Oh no! I suggested this one to !!!DH!!! and now the cat’s out of the bag! xx
Oona’s long been a favorite. Dad was a Charlie Chaplin fan and Oona O’Neill was a familiar name around the house. She was a gorgeous woman (google images for her, what a stunner)! Funny though, I thoroughly dislike Una (reminds me of my kid brother’s favorite card game when we were growing up: Uno) and Oonagh looks like it might appeal to the trendies. (and I dislike Uma as well, I always expect a sister named Radha). But Oona’s darling. Sound wise, she’s refreshing and packs a punch. Looks wise, she’s a bit of an odd duck but again, completely refreshing to see. I tried for a while to use her in the middle somewhere but sadly, everything I like just clashes with her. I think she’s a bit too open sounding and Irish to mesh with my generally English oddballs (occasionally French).
I would adore meeting a little Oona (and wouldn’t frown at a tiny Una) but sadly, I don’t think she’s for me. Elisabeth, Oona would make a fantastic sister for Bea!
I fell in love with Una after reading The Faerie Queene my freshman year of college. It’s a tough one to match with last names, though. It needs a last name with very soft sounds, I think. Unfortunately, my last name doesn’t work! If it did, I might be considering it instead of Clara.
There’s a little girl who comes into my store named Oona… I believe she’s named after Ms. O’Neill. I think Oona is quite charming, Una, however, I don’t like at all. I know it’s pronounced the same, but I wouldn’t consider them to be the same name at all. Oona is quirky, cool, bohemian, chic, etc… while Una is a Mexican grandma, just not appealing at all.
I love Oona but not Una. I think it was the double “o” that grabbed my attention and i really love that spelling. It is so spunky whilst Una seems reserved.
Great name and i love saying it and writing it out – Oona
To me, either one (Oona or Una) looks like a name a cave woman might have. It sounds positively ancient. I just don’t like the sound of it at all. I went to camp with a little girl named Una (I guess she’s about 25 by now, actually). No one teased her because her name was weird, but we all acknowledged its weirdness nevertheless.
I don’t find the sound of the name that appealing but is interesting. I knew a girl once with this name (she’s probably in her late 40s now). She was Irish American and she spelled it Una.
My mother, half Sioux maternally and Black Foot with one African-American in the DNA, was named Ona, named after someone her mother admired, an Ona Allbritton. My father, two generations from Ireland, was a flamin’ Fenian and he raised me “that Irish aren’t white,” and told me as many of the old stories as he could remember being told–but he especially and often told me about the heroes of the Easter Rising and The Foggy Dew was played by an Irish piper at his burial, but that is the story for another day.
So I got the Oona, as the 2nd Ona and more Irish spelling. My mother did not like Una and the very idea of Oonagh was a bit much for MS in 1953. And I was called by my Anglicised 2nd name “Lisa” (Eilis, Elisabeth) until my first Irish dance lesson when (another long story), my name changed in an instant when I fell into a sobbing heap after my first reel. So I am, by birth, Oonagh Eilis Brid Parnell ni Riain. When I married and we were hyphenating names, I went the whole route and changed my “official” name to
oonagh Eilis Brid Parnell Cionaodha ni-Maoilriain Bean-Uí-Ri; I add the hyphens for the connections of birth and marriage. My husband’s name is Kenneth King and King in Irish is “Ri” and Ryan or Riain means “little king” so it’s almost redundant. We both love Kilkenny and St. Kenneth (one of the many variations of spelling is Cionaodha and everyone will tell you a different, more ancient name). My father debated naming me after Parnell, Tone, Plunkett, or Pearse. Later on in life, he said if he’d known I was such a “fag hag” and later bisexual, he’d have named me after Padraig Pearse, who WAS gay. He also admired the great womyn of Ireland at the time of The Rising and he thought about Maude Gonne but we had an Aunt Maude who did not like her name and Gonne is far from Irish, even though her husband was McBride of the Rising–not a nice man to her, or so the story goes…abusive. So he chose Parnell, a very English and Protestant name and we were Protestant, so he wanted to honour those s/heroes who were of the Irish gentry who lived and died for Ireland….
My RC friends in the Six Çounties say Una is the more ancient name and is after St. Winifred and means “lamb of God.” The Goddess/saint has many “nicknames” like Bride or Bridie or Brid, the one I got after my patron Goddess/saint is the patron saint of healing, poetry, and smithcraft–FIRE! and I am a “fire sign” so there you go.
So my name means Lamb of God or unity or famine and hunger/consecrated to God or God is my oath/power, vigour, virtue; exalted one, high goddess; some report she is the daughter of the G/god Dagda–others that she was of humble origins. she did have a special love for the Poor; Brigid shares her feast day with another female saint, Darlughdach, and their relationship sounds very Lesbian or what we call Lesbian today, but their shared hagiography refer to their relationship as “anam cara” or soul friends. it is also said that they slept together and Darlughdach often acted as Ambassador to Brigid at the coed monastery in Kildare. Darlughdach begged to die when Brigid did-however she DID die exactly one year after Brigid, Feb 1-their Feast Day and the first day of spring in Ireland/country bumpkin or maybe “stone” and is old French for “little Peter” which is hilarious for one with a clitoris—’follow things worthy of thyself’” so technically I guess I should live in Little Rock. some say Parnell from the Italian feminine Petronilla means “pretty stone” or a wanton, immodest girl/fire-born, beautiful or handsome & also spelled and identified as Canice, Latin Canicus, Gaelic Chainnech or Cionaod, Cionaoit, or Cionaoith/daughter of “little king”/wife of king. I guess I could push the whole inclusive language thing and spell the Ri/king as “rioghnach” or “queen” and THAT i CERTAINLY am!! when i’m not being wanton with my “m’fhear ceile”=my husband, beloved, besheret)
So back to Una/Oona/Oonagh: as the conversation here goes, yes, there are many spellings, preferences of spelling, descriptions from all sorts of sources as to meaning, which name is “truly” Irish or the more ancient IN Irish. I was an only child, so “one” also works. When living in Latin America oonagh just did NOT translate and “una” means “one” so those whom I liked, loved, respected called me by my nickname–not everyone gets that privilege!
Una/Oona/Oonagh etc has some great stories: wife of Finn McCool (Fionn mac Cumhaill)–they were reported to live on the N coast of Ireland near Belfast; the O’Carroll family’s bean sidhe (banshee) was named Una; legend name of Conn of the Hundred Battles mother; Tomas Costello’s sweetheart, who died of unrequited love when her parents forbade them to ever see one another again/it is for Una that St George kills the dragon. Dragons and serpents symbolise trouble, infertility, and strife. Arthur is said to have dreamed of dragons at the time Mordred was conceived. A snake appears in Arthur’s dream just before he is killed my Mordred and it is the serpent that initiates the battle.
And, of course, you mention Oona O’Neill Chaplin. http://www.eoneill.com/tv/oona/oona.htm
Those younger than I may remember seeing movies in which the actor Geraldine Chaplin stars or plays; she is the 1st child of Charlie Chaplin and Oona O’Neill Chaplain–one of her children is also named Oona. Some of her movies include “Crimetime” (96); One Page of Love (78); Scrim (76); Wolfman (for april 09) with Anthony Hopkins–she plays an old gypsy woman; Art of Las Vegas (08); The Orphanage (07); Bronte (08); Blood Rayne in 05; Bridge of St. Luis Rey (04); Just Run!–01; Faces of the Moon, 02; Cousin Bette, 98; she played Mtr. Teresa in Mother Teresa: In the Name of God’s Poor in 97; the 96 Jane Eyre; Aunt Gladys in Home for the Holidays–you’ll be seeing this one frequently these days; Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence in 93; she also played Hannah Chaplin in the movie Chaplin in 92; Bolero in 1980; 75′s Nashville; The Three and the Four Musketeers (73 and 74); Rasputin in 67; and many of us old folks and younger folks who enjoy film, she played Tonya in David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago in 1965 (GOD! am I that old? Jaysus, I’m afraid so…that was her third film, by the way. These are just a few; many are foreign films. I THINK she played a keystone cop in Casino Royale, back before Sean Connery was Bond—David Niven was the Bond in that version from sometime in the mid 60′s; Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, Jacquelinje Bisset, Woody allen, Deborah Kerr, John Huston and Ursula Andress also star. Anjelica Huston, David Hemmings, Peter O’Toole, and Stirling Ross also appear but uncredited. William Holden, JeanPaul Belmondo, and Charles Boyer have minor roles. If you can find it, it’s fabulous just to see all the fabulous stars, many now dead.
I just googled “famous women named Una”-famous women named Oona–famous women named Oonagh…interesting, if you are interested!
I am the first bisexual ordained to the Inclusive Celtic Church; I think that counts as not fame, but only that I know “what’s in a name.” My work throughout my life has been with the Poor, the ostracised, the oppressed, and marginalised. And I am a member of The Friends of Sinn Fein.
In 1999, Jane Scovell wrote a book about Oona O’Neill Chaplin and it is named: Oona: Living In The Shadows: A Biography of Oona.
Now…who the hell was Ona Allbritton? I wonder.
oonagh+
My name is Oona. People tease me sometimes but most of the time I hear it’s pretty. I like it and it’s easy to write, although many think the “o” is a “d” and call me Dona. I also think the “oo” spelling is cooler than the “u”, although I may be a bit biased.
I’m thinking of naming my child Oona (provided she is a she!) but having problems with a middle name. I was thinking Oona Clare, after County Clare in Ireland, where my family is from. Our last name begins with an M and is two syllables. Our 3 year old daughter is Stella June. What do you think, Oona lovers?
I love Oona Clare – it goes quite well with Stella June!
Thanks! I’m glad you like it, though I’m not sold on Clare. Any suggestions?
What about…
Oona Pearl
Oona Elisabetta
Oona Violetta
Hello, my name is Oona too. I’m from Finland and here everybody is spelling my name with “oo” never “u”. My mom named me from Oona Chablin.
I was little amazed a while a go when I found out that my favorite comic’s one character is actually Oona. We call the “Princess Oona” for “Una”.
Btw, my middle name is Karoliina. Karolina would sound as fine.
Hi Oona! I dated a guy from Finland for years – love, love, love your language. Karoliina is fabulous!
Really? No one prefers Una to Oona, huh?
I’ve been in love with Una since reading the Fairy Queen. I much prefer her to Oona, which I didn’t know about until I looked up Una on nameberry. Una is more literary, more Latinate, more English and less Irish.