Given name & surname · also Greek
Sophia
“wisdom”
Sophia comes directly from the Greek word for wisdom, pairing a clear meaning with a long European naming history.
Original GreekΣοφία
Meaning & origin
What it means
Sophia means “wisdom” in Greek.
Where it comes from
Sophia has Greek linguistic roots and later spread into several European naming traditions.
How it developed
The name uses the Greek noun sophia. That word also appears in the phrase Hagia Sophia, meaning “holy wisdom.”
The story
Sophia became popular in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It also has literary and screen associations, including the heroine of Tom Jones and the actress Sophia Loren.
Sophia through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 439,619
- 511 boys · 439,108 girls
- Most popular year
- 2012
- 22,354 babies
- 2025
- 12,572
- #5 for girls · #7,606 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −14%
- Easing
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 12,561 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 5 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 14.5% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 22,336 in 2012. It also appeared in 11 birth records for boys in 2025. In 2025, California had the largest reported state-level birth count for girls with this name (1,685). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 327,891 as a first name in 2020; 296 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Sophia’s family of names
Sophia has an affectionate form in Sonya. In English usage, Sophia shares an earlier linguistic root with Sofia. Sophia has a related form in Sophie.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Sophia has relatives in 42 languages. Lines run from its Ancient Greek roots to each of them.
Ancient Greekwhere Sophia comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 12
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Sofiavariant · Norwegian Nynorsk, Norwegian Bokmål
- Sophiepet form · Tagalog, ceb
- Sofievariant · German, Danish
- Sonyapet form
- Sofiyavariant
- Sonjapet form · Danish, German
- Zosiapet form
- Sophydiminutive · English
Show 4 moreShow fewer
Spellings & scripts 3
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 34
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- Σοφίαroot · Greek, Ancient Greek
- Zofiarelated form · Polish
- SofijaUpper Sorbian, Serbo-Croatian
- Sophinaequivalent
- Sofiiaequivalent
- Soffiaborrowing · Welsh, Swedish
- Zsofiarelated form
- Σόφηequivalent
Show 26 moreShow fewer
- Soffíaequivalent
- Zofijaequivalent
- Соф'яequivalent
- Sófíaequivalent
- Szófiaequivalent
- Sofiyeequivalent
- 索菲婭Chinese
- СофияRussian
- СофьяRussian
- Kopaeaborrowing · Hawaiian
- Viiacognate · Estonian
- Sofusmasculine form · Danish
- Sophusmasculine form · Danish
- ŽofieCzech
- SofeNorthern Sami
- סופיהHebrew
- SofíaSpanish, Galician
- СофијаMacedonian, Serbo-Croatian
- सोफ़ियाHindi
- Zsófiaderivative · Hungarian
- سوفیاPersian
- Sofjaizh
- სოფიოGeorgian
- ZsófikaHungarian
- СофіяUkrainian
- ŽofiaSlovak
See also 3
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Sophia
- Sophia LorenItalian actress (born 1934)
- Sophia BushAmerican actressborn 1982
- Sophia Alekseyevna of RussiaRussian tsarevna (1657–1704)
- Sophia of HanoverPrincess of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover, heir presumptive and ancestor of British monarchs following the Act of Settlement 17011630–1714
- Sophia of PrussiaQueen consort of Greece (1870–1932)
- Sophia of NassauSwedish queen (1836–1913)
- Sophia LillisAmerican actress (born 2002)
- Sophia Dorothea of HanoverPrussian royal consort of Frederick William I1687–1757
- Sophia Dorothea of Cellewife of George I of Great Britain (1666-1726)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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