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The first name 
Sofia

Sofia is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

The name Sofia is very popular!

The first name Sofia is one of the top 100 most popular girls names in the US – currently at #15 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Sofia, accounting for approximately 0.50 % of all newborn girls. In the entire USA, approximately 159,222 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Sofia. That is 0.05 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Sofia

What does the name 
Sofia mean?

The name Sofia stands for ‘the wise one’. It is derived from the Greek word ‘sophia,’ which means ‘divine wisdom’ in English.

Who is wise? Wise men are people who are particularly rich in experience and knowledge and who show this in their behavior and apply it in a wise way.

Sofia has several famous namesakes

A producer and director

Sofia Coppola (*1971)
Sofia Carmina Coppola is the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola and the cousin of Nicolas Cage. She began her career in the film industry as an actress and had small roles in films directed by her father. Later, however, she focused mainly on writing and directing films and has achieved great success in these fields. She has directed several films, including 'The Virgin Suicides' (1999), 'Marie Antoinette' (2006) and 'The Beguiled' (2017). In 2004 she won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the screenplay of her film 'Lost in Translation' (2003).

An actress

Sofía Vergara (*1972)
The Colombian-American actress began her career in Latin America before coming to Hollywood. She had her breakthrough in Hollywood with the role of Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the TV series 'Modern Family' (2009 - 2020). The role earned her a nomination for four Primetime Emmy Awards and seven Golden Globe Awards, as well as several awards such as the Screen Actors Guild Award. In addition to acting, she is also a producer, advertiser and model.

A former queen

Queen Sofía of Spain (*1938)
Queen Sofia of Spain, born Sofia of Greece and Denmark, is the wife of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. She was born on 2 November 1938 in Athens, Greece, and is the daughter of King Paul of Greece and Queen Friederike of Hanover. She is a Princess of Greece and Denmark and has royal lineage. She became Queen of Spain upon her husband's accession in 1975 until the abdication of her husband in 2014. She also has a career as an artist and has studied painting and drawing.

An architect

Sophia Hayden (1868 - 1953)
Sophia Gregoria Hayden was a U.S. architect and the first woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's four-year degree programme in architecture. At the age of 21, Hayden designed the so-called Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. The project was the result of the most famous design competition for women architects in the country at the time. Hayden's entry won first prize out of a total of thirteen entries from trained women architects.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Sofia, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Sofia? Are you also called Sofia? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

In Bulgaria,...

the capital is called Sofia. The city was renamed at the end of the 14th century after St. Sophia's Church, which is still the city's landmark today. Before that it was Sredets.

A plateau

The Sofia Valley or Sofia Plain is a wide plateau where the Bulgarian capital Sofia is located, after which it is named.

An icy mountain

An approximately 5,430 ft (1655 m) high and icy mountain on Livingston Island in the South Shetland archipelago is called Sofia Peak, after the capital of Bulgaria.

On the Upper West Side

of Manhattan, New York City you can find a condominium building named 'The Sofia', which in turn is named after the Sofia Brothers (Warehousing Company).

Sofia -
from zero to hero

#12 - this is the highest rank Sofia has ever achieved. Not many names manage to reach such a high popularity in even one of the 140+ years of recording. The last time Sofia reached this top spot was in 2014 when 9,612 newborn girls were given this name. But as our statistics show, Sofia hasn't always been a popular name: in some years of record, most recently in the year 1885, not a single newborn or less than 5 were named Sofia (a name is only included in the official statistics if it has been given at least 5 times in a year). Nevertheless, the name Sofia has accompanied people in this country for a long time. It turns out that this name fits very well into our time today. From zero to hero - even though it took a while for Sofia to really catch on, it has become a very popular name.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Sofia was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

At the peak in the 21st century

In 2022, 7,262 newborns were given the name Sofia, making it rank #13. In the current century, the name is really taking off. So the chances of meeting a young Sofia are higher than ever.

Sofia -
well known in all states of the USA, most popular in Nevada

There are only 537 different women’s names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Sofia is one of them. However, Sofia is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Nevada seem to particularly fancy this name – the 1,683 women called Sofia who live here are 0,377% of all female residents and push their name up to #50, easily placing it in the top 100 most common female names in Nevada.

Sofia has 5 letters 
and begins with an S

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter S is a very popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 9.3% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter A is more common for girls' names.

With five letters, the name Sofia is comparatively short. In fact, 17.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly five letters. Only 7% of all first names are even shorter, while 75% have more than five letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 9.3% of all girls' names start with an S, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the girls' names that start with an S, Susan is the most common.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Sofia

If your name is Sofia and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Sofia

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Sofia, you can simply say:

Sun

Orange

Fox

Igloo

Apple

This is how the name Sofia is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Sofia in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Sofia

Sofia

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Sofia

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Sofia is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

S
O
F
I
A

Have you ever waved the name Sofia

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

S
O
F
I
A

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Sofia sounds like this: