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Baby Name of the Day: Zona

February 9, 2012 By appellationmountain 11 Comments

The portrait of American author Zona Gale (187...

Zona Gale; Image via Wikipedia

She’s a blast from the past, a once common name worn by a famous writer. Today, she’s all but unknown – and not likely to return.

Thanks to Beth one from her family tree for our Baby Name of the Day: Zona.

Zona literally translates to girdle in Greek. Plenty of ancient mythologies considered them garments of great power – Aphrodite’s could ignite love and passion. Ishtar’s girdle kept the world fruitful and multiplying. They could be borrowed and stolen, and men wore them, too – Odysseus had a magic one that was part-life vest, and Thor stored his weapons in one. They’re little more than a belt.

Since then, girdles evolved to a sort of women’s foundation garment, something to cinch in the waist, and then changed once more, to something also as obsolete as a petticoat.

Zona is also the source of our word zone – a geographic belt. The sense has expanded until zone is synonymous with area.

I’m not clear if the given name is related to the Greek word. But here’s what I do know: Zona ranked in the US Top 1000 from 1880 through 1941. A few possible origins include:

  • Other -ona names were big in the era – Nona, Ona, Lona, Leona, Dona, Mona, Iona, Arizona, Winona, Ramona, Verona, and Frona all ranked in the Top 1000. And short, seemingly invented Z-names were in favor, too, including Zella, Zula, Zora, Zelma, Zola, Zetta, Zilpha, Zada, Zettie, Zelda, Zoa, Zelia, and Zana.
  • Zona has Serbian roots, too, though I can’t pin down a specific origin. A 1906 novel was titled Zona Zamfirova, and it was successfully adapted for the big screen in 2002. In the story, a rich man’s daughter – Zona – falls for an ordinary Joe. All ends happily.

Speaking of literature, Zona Gale was born in Wisconsin in 1874, became a writer, and eventually the first woman to the win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Gale was well-educated – she earned a master’s degree – and worked as a journalist in New York before returning home to devote herself to fiction. Her stage adaptation of her bestseller Miss Lulu Bett would win her the Pulitzer in 1921. In the story, Lulu strikes out on her own, leaving an unappreciative family and a failed marriage. Besides her literary triumphs, Gale was a suffragette and activist.

There’s another nineteenth Zona, and her story is very sad. Zona Heaster was murdered by her husband in 1897. The crime might have gone undiscovered, but shortly after Zona’s funeral, her mother claimed that her daughter’s ghost appeared and explained that her death was no mere accidental fall, but murder. Her mother successfully campaigned to have her daughter’s body exhumed, and an autopsy performed. Sure enough, Zona had met a bad end, and her husband spent the remainder of his days in prison.

All of this makes Zona feel like an intriguing forgotten name with a modern sound. And yet there is one almost insurmountable problem. In Hebrew, Zona translates to prostitute – and that’s a gentle translation. In our ever-so-connected world, this fact would be readily discovered by a daughter.

If you have Zona on your family tree, she’s a lovely choice for the middle spot, with her subtle connection to mythology and her literary pedigree. But as a given name, it seems likely to prove challenging. There are many other Zo- names from the same era without baggage. Then again, I’m not certain how widely known zona is as an insult in the US. Have you heard it? And is it a deal-breaker?

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Comments

  1. Sebastiane says

    February 12, 2012 at 1:35 PM

    I really don’t care about the Hebrew connections, I think it is a lovely name and wish it would male a comeback.

    Reply
  2. Rhi says

    February 10, 2012 at 8:35 PM

    My sister’s name is Seona. She thinks my mum made it up. Would love to see it profiled. 🙂
    I love your site btw. I’ve finished naming all my babies but my name obsession continues.

    Reply
  3. caroline says

    February 9, 2012 at 3:25 PM

    Ok, so I had to Google it. Apparently his father was a rodeo cowboy who missed a big rodeo in Phoenix due to his son’s birth, so they named him Zona for Arizona.

    Reply
  4. caroline says

    February 9, 2012 at 3:23 PM

    There is a locally famous male country singer from my area named Zona Jones. Not sure how he got his name!

    Reply
  5. C in DC says

    February 9, 2012 at 2:43 PM

    Zona’s not my style, but I love some of the others you list: Ramona, Zora, Zaida.

    Reply
  6. Diana says

    February 9, 2012 at 12:37 PM

    The Hebrew and “zoned out” connections might nix it for me, especially since there are so many other, similar names I like more, like Zora and Zoe.

    Reply
  7. Sally says

    February 9, 2012 at 11:48 AM

    My mom knew a very nice woman in Kentucky named Zona – I’m sure she didn’t know the Hebrew meaning of her name. (Or if she did, she didn’t let it bother her.) That was pre-Internet, though, and it sounds like it could be pretty problamatic now. The other -ona options you listed would probably be a much safer bet for parents who want a name similar to Zona without the, ahem, Hebrew translation.

    Reply
  8. Catherine says

    February 9, 2012 at 4:42 AM

    I want to like Zona but it just seems kind of unfinished and then the Hebrew connection just seems to be a bit too much. But how about Zenobia to honor great aunt Zona.

    Reply
  9. Eponymia says

    February 9, 2012 at 3:30 AM

    I’m from Arizona, but the first thing I hear when I hear “zona” is the Spanish word for “zone”– as in, a neighborhood/district. I like the sound but am not sure of it as a name.

    Reply
    • Claire2 says

      February 9, 2012 at 7:14 AM

      Yeah, there’s a Zona Mexicana in the airport and that restaurant is the only thing I think of. I can’t picture a girl named this.

      Reply
  10. Claire says

    February 9, 2012 at 2:21 AM

    When I hear Zona, I immediately think Arizona. I went to the U of A and it’s commonly heard around Tucson, like Bama for Alabama. So it sounds like a nickname to me.

    Reply

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