Used after the Arizona place-name Sedona, itself from a Spanish-influenced naming tradition.
Sedona is unusual among modern baby names because its story is not ancient at all. It enters American naming through Sedona Schnebly, the Arizona pioneer for whom the red-rock town was named in 1902. Her mother is said to have coined the name simply because it sounded beautiful, which means Sedona is less an inherited word than a successful act of invention.
That gives it a rare kind of etymology: not a long chain of linguistic transformations, but a single family act of naming that went on to become geographic legend. Once the town of Sedona became famous, the name acquired a second life as a given name inspired by place. The red cliffs, desert light, and later the town's reputation for spirituality and artistic retreat changed its emotional color.
Today Sedona often suggests landscape, American Southwest mystique, and a kind of serene vividness. It belongs to the modern class of place-names used for children, yet it differs from names like Brooklyn or Savannah because it still feels singular and a little visionary. Its evolution is a striking reversal: first a coined personal name, then a place-name, then a broader cultural symbol, and finally again a personal name chosen for beauty, atmosphere, and a distinctly American romance.