Gender: Masculine
Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: “dove.”

The name is derived from the Greek, Ionas Ιωνας, a Greek form of the Hebrew name, Jonah, which is from the Hebrew יוֹנָה (Yonah) meaning, “dove.”

Jonah is found in the Old Testament in the Book of Jonah as the name of a prophet who was swallowed by a whale. His story was very popular during the Middle Ages.

Currently, its Greek translation of Jonas is one of the most popular male names in Northern Europe. He is the 5th most popular male name in Germany, (2011) and Norway (2010). His rankings in other countries are as follows:

• # 4 (German-speaking, Switzerland, 2010)
• # 6 (Austria, 2010)
• # 22 (Denmark, 2010)
• # 53 (Belgium, 2009)
• # 154 (Netherlands, 2010)
• # 163 (Czech Republic, 2006)
• # 288 (France, 2009)
• # 455 (United States, 2010)

While its original Biblical form of Jonah is far more rare, his rankings are as follows:

• # 144 (United States, 2010)
• # 301 (Netherlands, 2010)

Other forms of the name include:

• Yunus يونس (Arabic/Turkish)
• Jonàs (Catalan)
• Jona (Croatian/Serbian)
• Jonáš (Czech/Slovak)
• Jonas (Dutch/English/French/German/Lithuanian/Scandinavian)
• Joona (Finnish)
• Joonas (Finnish)
• Jonne (Finnish)
• Jona (German)
• Ionas (Greek)
• Yonah יוֹנָה (Hebrew)
• Jónás (Hungarian)
• Jónas (Icelandic)
• Giona (Italian)
• Jonasz (Polish)
• Iona (Romanian/Russian)
• Jonás (Spanish)