Sonia

Where Sonia comes from

Borrowed from Russian Со́ня (Sónja), pet form of Софи́я (Sofíja, “Sophia”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Sonia
  • Russian
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1895
    First appearance
    #1,299 among girls, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1946
    Sonia Gandhi born
    Indian politician
  3. 1954
    Sonia Sotomayor born
    US Supreme Court justice since 2009
  4. 1976
    Peak, #165
    1,554 babies named Sonia — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1994
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #364.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Russian (the usual UK spelling of the name which is spelled Sonya in the US).
Namesakes
  • Sonia Gandhi · Indian politician, born 1946
  • Sonia Sotomayor · US Supreme Court justice since 2009, born 1954
  • Sonia Delaunay · French painter, 1885–1979
  • Sonia Rykiel · French fashion designer, 1930–2016
  • Sonia O'Sullivan · Irish long and middle-distance runner, born 1969

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.