Sophia Name Meaning

Sophia is a name found in much of the Christianized West. Though it originated in Greece after the time of Plato, it spread with Christianity. The name means “wisdom,” from the Greek sophos, wise. The name bears traditional dignity, was popularized by the Roman Emperor Justinian who built the Church of Saint Sophia in Constantinople, and was adopted by royalty.

If you believe that names hold power, what better name to choose for a girl than one that gifts her with wisdom? Sophia’s soft sound carries a feminine feel that tempers that wisdom with gentleness. It also connotes knowledge, power, and bravery. Perhaps a little Sophia will be a scientist in the making or a scholar for the ages.

In Christian theology Sophia is connected to the concept of Divine Wisdom, and there are numerous saints named Sophia in the Catholic Church. Her deeply religious history make her an attractive choice for parents looking for a less obvious spiritual name.

This ancient and unique name expresses the qualities that you hope she’ll have while paying homage to religious and historical traditions. Recently, the name has experienced a resurgence, entering the most popular girl names in the 2010s. Variations on the name include Sofia and Sophie.There’s also the spunky Zofie or Sonia as alternates.

Infographic of Sophia name meaning, which is From the Greek word sophos, meaning wise, Sophia also appears as Sofia.
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Sophia Name Popularity

How popular is the name Sophia? Here’s everything we know.

Year Rank # Births % Births
1910 232 235 0.0667%
1911 241 226 0.0607%
1912 227 355 0.0704%
1913 231 392 0.0691%
1914 230 507 0.0728%
1915 226 653 0.0719%
1916 233 654 0.0677%
1917 234 670 0.067%
1918 254 592 0.0552%
1919 261 558 0.0533%
1920 281 495 0.0445%
1921 299 441 0.0385%
1922 329 353 0.0317%
1923 350 315 0.0281%
1924 362 313 0.027%
1925 406 239 0.0211%
1926 464 173 0.0157%
1927 444 196 0.0177%
1928 487 152 0.0142%
1929 513 129 0.0125%
1930 585 95 0.0091%
1931 583 85 0.0086%
1932 575 87 0.0088%
1933 695 50 0.0054%
1934 619 70 0.0072%
1935 700 51 0.0052%
1936 713 48 0.005%
1937 716 50 0.0051%
1938 734 48 0.0047%
1939 742 47 0.0046%
1940 714 55 0.0052%
1941 720 56 0.005%
1942 914 35 0.0028%
1943 789 54 0.0041%
1944 727 65 0.0052%
1945 742 58 0.0048%
1946 788 66 0.0045%
1947 919 49 0.0029%
1948 862 57 0.0036%
1949 798 77 0.0048%
1950 941 49 0.003%
1951 705 108 0.0064%
1952 887 64 0.0037%
1953 801 88 0.005%
1954 853 77 0.0042%
1955 752 112 0.0061%
1956 865 86 0.0046%
1957 726 140 0.0073%
1958 663 179 0.0095%
1959 584 239 0.0126%
1960 604 220 0.0116%
1961 554 273 0.0145%
1962 437 443 0.0241%
1963 422 482 0.0269%
1964 456 411 0.0233%
1965 409 478 0.0292%
1966 366 572 0.0366%
1967 368 563 0.0371%
1968 391 510 0.034%
1969 380 568 0.0369%
1970 402 538 0.0338%
1971 386 546 0.0363%
1972 407 439 0.0322%
1973 427 420 0.0324%
1974 470 339 0.0261%
1975 497 324 0.0252%
1976 490 325 0.0252%
1977 462 386 0.0286%
1978 467 378 0.0281%
1979 424 452 0.0321%
1980 374 583 0.0399%
1981 215 1,206 0.082%
1982 223 1,138 0.0762%
1983 212 1,167 0.0791%
1984 235 1,050 0.0706%
1985 237 1,066 0.0702%
1986 246 1,027 0.068%
1987 238 1,090 0.0714%
1988 229 1,123 0.0721%
1989 256 1,025 0.0635%
1990 253 1,093 0.0659%
1991 228 1,226 0.0752%
1992 212 1,328 0.0832%
1993 196 1,477 0.0947%
1994 187 1,585 0.1033%
1995 169 1,738 0.1153%
1996 126 2,487 0.1661%
1997 95 3,629 0.2454%
1998 73 4,302 0.2874%
1999 52 5,422 0.3621%
2000 42 6,561 0.4295%
2001 37 7,156 0.4749%
2002 27 8,664 0.5782%
2003 20 9,684 0.6365%
2004 15 10,915 0.7161%
2005 12 12,671 0.8287%
2006 9 13,499 0.8621%
2007 6 17,021 1.0788%
2008 7 16,081 1.0405%
2009 4 16,941 1.1334%
2010 2 20,639 1.4322%
2011 1 21,837 1.5327%
2012 1 22,304 1.5652%
2013 1 21,213 1.4899%
2014 3 18,598 1.2765%
2015 3 17,402 1.196%
2016 4 16,112 1.1175%
2017 5 14,831 1.0626%
2018 5 13,928 1.0138%
2019 4 13,714 1.013%
2020 4 12,809 1.0063%
2021 6 11,517 0.9421%
2022 5 12,310 0.9331%

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Data via SSA.gov.

Names Like Sophia

If you like Sophia, you’ll love these other names like Sophia.

What names are diminutives of Sophia?

A diminutive is a name that’s like Sophia sounds, you might also like these names that sound like Sophia, but shorter.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Fia

Flame

Latin

Sofie

Wisdom

Greek

Sophey

Wisdom

Greek

Sophie

Wisdom

Greek

What names are variants of Sophia?

Mix it up with these names that are a variation of the name Sophia.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Saffi

Wisdom

Greek

Sofia

Wisdom

Greek

Sofiah

Wisdom

Greek

Soficita

Wisdom

Greek

Sofka

Wisdom

Greek

Sofya

Wisdom

Greek

Sonia

A Slavonic form of Sophia.

Greek

Sonja

Wisdom

Greek

Sonnie

Wisdom

Greek

Sonya

Wisdom

Greek

Sophea
Zofi

Wisdom

Greek

Zofia

Wisdom

Greek

Zofya

Wisdom

Greek

Zosia

Wisdom

Greek

What names sound like Sophia?

If you like how Sophia sounds, you might also like these names that sound like Sophia.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Safia

Friend; pure

African

What names are similar to Sophia?

Find a name that’s like Sophia, but just a little bit different.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Amalia

Industrious, striving; work; rival; laborious; eager

Latin

Amelia

Work

German

Camellia

Helper to the priest

Latin

Dahlia

Dahlia flower

Scandinavian

Delia

From Delos

Greek

Isabella

Devoted to God

Italian

Lydia

From Lydia

Greek

Miranda

Admirable

Latin

Sabrina

“The siren from the river Severn,” in allusion to a legendary princess.

Celtic

Sylvia

Woods, forest

Latin

Lists With Sophia

Find inspiration in these baby girl name lists featuring the name Sophia.

Siblings of Sophia

Mamas with kids named Sophia also have kids with these names.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Hanna

He (God) has favored me

Hebrew

Arturo

An Italian and Spanish form of Arthur.

Italian

Amelia

Work

German

Kaiya

Forgiveness

Japanese

Bryson

Son of Brice

English

Jasper

Treasurer

English

Kali

The black one

Indian (Sanskrit)

29 Comments

  1. I Think The Name Sophia is Very Intresting and cool, Yes i am a Soccer player yes, i used to hate my name but you gotta move on in life right?

    Reply

  2. I’m called Sophia, named after Sophia Loren. I used to hate my name, but adore it now. I couldn’t ask for a better name to carry me through life.

    Reply

  3. Her father picked Sophia because it means wisdom and I picked her middle name Eden . Eden meaning pleasure, because she is just that to my little baby I love so much!

    Reply

  4. It’s a classic name.

    Reply

  5. I’ve always liked that name! It’s cute and elegant

    Reply

  6. Sophia is a great choice for a name, utterly immaculate
    10/10 in my opinion, not biased at all :))

    Reply

  7. Sophia is a good name, and Sofia is an alternative spelling, and Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria too!

    Reply

  8. My husband and I are high school sweethearts and we’ve had the name Sophia picked out since high school so that’s what we names our daughter.

    Reply

  9. I’ve just always loved the name

    Reply

  10. As soon as we saw it on the baby list of names, we fell in love with it! And now that she’s here, it fits her perfectly!

    Reply

    • No wonder why I’m smart I’m named Sophia!

      Reply

  11. It came to me in a dream a couple years before I thought about having kids. When we found out we were having a girl, it was easy.

    Reply

  12. Family name

    Reply

  13. We chose it because it sounded nicr

    Reply

  14. Sophia means “wise” which sounded neat for our firstborn who will be a role model to future younger siblings. I also thought it sounded like a beautiful name for our girl, and I loved the sound of “Sophie” for a nickname!

    Reply

  15. From your YouTube video on baby girl names and their meanings. It was the only name we both liked in the whole list, and was a ‘similar name’ to isabella, the name we used for our dog and loved. About 15 mins after listening to your YouTube video I was guided to pick a card from my goddess deck and pulled the ‘Sophia’ goddess card, so confirming that was the name we should be using! ? thank you so much for that video!

    Reply

  16. I have always loved the name Sophia and think it’s a very feminine and classic name that can fit both my Hispanic background and my husband’s Azerbaijani Background

    Reply

  17. Greek word for wisdom. It’s also a very popular name that everyone loves.

    Reply

  18. Sophia means wisdom.

    Reply

  19. I love her name

    Reply

  20. It’s extremely popular, but it was perfect for my daughter, so we used it anyway.

    Reply

  21. My daughter Sophia is definitely a character. She is very sassy, witty and sarcastic in all the best ways. She reminds me of the Sophia off the Golden Girls and that’s what I love about my daughter’s name. She is my Sophia and always will be.

    Reply

  22. We have a baby girl and praying about which Christian Name to choose, but I found the name Sophia and just love it

    Reply

  23. Its classic

    Reply

  24. I heard it berore and loved it

    Reply

  25. We had this name picked out years before my daughter was born. It sounds beautiful and is pronounced the same in multiple languages, important to us because of the ethnic diversity of our family (Greek, Filipino, Venezuelan). My only (very small) regret is that it’s like the new “Jennifer” and there are usually at least a few others in her grade. But she doesn’t seem to mind and loves her own name. It’s a classic. We named both of our kids after saints. Names like this never sound trendy or go out of style. We chose to spell it with a “ph” and gave her a less common middle name, which is also Greek: Melina 🙂

    Reply

  26. We thought of her name within weeks of finding our we were pregnant with a girl. We tossed around a couple other names like Ellie or Chloe or even different ways to spell Sophia such as Sofia or even naming her Sophie but we love the original way of spelling it and the full name. Her middle name took a little but longer … I saw Gray in one of my Facebook mom groups and shared it with her Dad at first he didn’t like it…. until he said it out loud, Sophia Gray. We never looked back! We had her name picked out probably around month 5!

    Reply

  27. Sophia is my eighth baby, third girl, and my rainbow baby after 4 miscarriages. I have always loved the name Sophie, and longed to be able to use it finally. My girls’ names are Emma and Lydia, so her name had to end in an a. My youngest boy calls her soaps, this is the only downside that I can think of, but even that is pretty cute. Her full name is for lots of ancestors, Sophia Elizabeth Amelia Lorraine. In scrapbooks, I sometimes put Sophia etc, which is how her oldest brother lists her name. Above all, it suits her and she recognized her name by five months.

    Reply

  28. We chose the name Sophia for the same reason as Hanna my husband is Lebanese and I am Canadian and it works for both sides.

    Reply

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