Sofia

151,654 people in America carry this name — ranked #368 of 923.

A name being given more often than it was a generation ago.

Say it soh FEE uh

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

S OW0 F IY1 AH0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

People counted 151,654 2020 Census
Rank #368 Common

The meaning and origin of Sofia

Greek in origin, reading literally as “wisdom”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Sofia through the years

148,425 babies were given this name since 1881. The busiest year was 2015, with 9,703 of them.

43k 82k

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10s 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Sofia

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

Sofia Susan — same opening
Sofia Sarah — same opening
Sofia Ashley — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Sofia is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Sofia a boy's or a girl's name?

0.2% men

151,408 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Same syllables and stress as Sofia

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 3 syllables, stress on the second

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Who has this name today

White alone (non-Hispanic) — 26.4%
Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 1.5%
Hispanic or Latino origin — 65.7%
Two or more races — 2.7%
Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 3.5%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Where in America Sofia is thickest on the ground

In Nevada the name is given 2.2 times as often as it is across the country.

Nevada ×2.2
Florida ×1.8
Texas ×1.7
California ×1.7
Arizona ×1.6

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

This name in other languages

Wike Lett
Sophy English
Sappi Lith
Saffi Danish
Fieke German
Zofia Polish
Zosia Polish
Zsofe Hungarian
Ssonia Russian
Sophie Fr.|Ger
Sophia English
Ssofija Russian
Fiechen German
Zsoflie Hungarian

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

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Where this page gets its numbers

Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin