What Is It Named After? The Scottish Isle Of Iona

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — While the symbol of Iona’s well-known athletic teams is the "Gael," an homage to the Irish tradition of the college in New Rochelle, the school takes its name from a Scottish Isle.

The nine Christian Brothers who founded Iona gave their new college the name of Iona, after a tiny island just off the west coast of Scotland, according to the school's official historical information.

In 563, the Irish monk Saint Columba established the famed abbey on the island from which missionaries spread across the world. The island of Iona grew to become a renowned center of faith and learning.

The name Iona was chosen in part to reaffirm a commitment to "giving students secular training while educating the whole person in mind, heart and spirit," according to the school's mission.

In the decades since its founding in 1940, the college has built a reputation as an elite learning institution, but the name Iona serves as a reminder that the original goal of the nine monks who started the college was to open new paths to economic and social advancement for the sons of New York’s working class. School officials still point to Iona's namesake as a binding tie to that original mission.

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