Ramona is the Spanish feminine form of Ramón, the Spanish Raymond, which comes from the Germanic elements ragin and mund and means "wise protector" or "counsel and protection". Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona made the name famous in California, and Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby introduced it to generations of young readers. In the United States Ramona returned to the top 1000 in 2016 and has climbed steadily to number 733 in 2025, its best rank in decades.