Meaning and background
The story behind Fiona
Fiona is a feminine form of Fionn, with Scottish and English use and an early literary appearance recorded in James Macpherson’s Fingal. The reference qualifies whether that appearance was the first, so a precise invention claim would go beyond the evidence. Its English reading has three syllables with stress in the middle. For a dog, Fiona gives a flowing personal-name option rather than a short word name. Keep the historical route distinct from any modern character or person who supplies your own reason for choosing it.
- Origin
- A feminine form of Fionn, documented in Scottish and English use. Source
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About Fiona
Recorded as a dog’s name
Fiona appears in 75 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/fioʊnə/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the second syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/fioʊnə/ · primary stress on syllable 2F IY0 OW1 N AH0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.