Sophia, also spelled Sofia, is a feminine given name, from the Greek personification of wisdom (). Other forms include Sophie, Sofiya, Sofija, Sophy, Sophea, and Sofie.
History The given name is first recorded in the beginning of the 4th century.V. Saxer, "Sophia v. Rom" in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche vol. 9 (1993), 733f., citing H.-L. Marrou, Dame Sagesse et ses trois filles: Mél. Ch. Mohrmann (1963), 177–183.
Popularity Sophia is a common female name in the Eastern Orthodox countries. It became very popular in the West beginning in the later 1990s and became one of the most popularly given girls' names in the Western world in the first decades of the 21st century.
Sophia was known as the personification of wisdom by early Christians and Saint Sophia is also an early Christian martyr. Both associations contributed to the usage of the name. The name was comparatively common in continental Europe in the medieval and early modern period. It was popularized in Britain by the German House of Hanover in the 18th century.
It was repeatedly popularised among the wider population, by the name of a character in the novel Tom Jones (1749) by Henry Fielding, in The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) by Oliver Goldsmith, and in the 1960s by Italian actress Sophia Loren (b. 1934).
Sophia was comparatively popular in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century; its use declined in the 1920s to 1950s; it became again moderately popular during the 1960s and increased in use.
During the 1990s to the 2010s, the popularity of the name rose dramatically in many countries throughout the western world. Suggested influences for this trend include Sofía Vergara and Sofia Coppola (popular from the late 1990s) and Sofia Hellqvist (popular from the 2000s).Olivia Petter, This is the most popular girl's name in the world, 25 October 2017.Miranda Larbi, Sofia is the most popular girl’s name in the world, Metro.co.uk, 26 October 2017.Catriona Harvey-Jenner, This is the most popular baby name for girls in the world, Cosmopolitan, 26 October 2017. Sophia and variants of the name remain among the most currently popularly given names for girls in countries across Europe as well as countries in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and others.Sophia, Sofia (behindthename.com)
In 2022, Sophia was the fifth most popular name given to girls in Canada, while Sofia was 13th.
Name variants Greek Σοφία was adopted without significant phonological changes into numerous languages, as Sophia (German, and thence English) and Sofia (Romance languages, and thence also to Germanic languages and Finnish, etc.). The spelling Soffia is Icelandic and Welsh. Hungarian has Zsófia. Modern Spanish uses the acute diacritic, Sofía. South and East Slavic and Baltic languages have Sofija (Софија), Sofiya (София) and Sofya (Софья). West Slavic (Polish and Czech-Slovak) introduced a voiced sibilant, Zofia, Žofia, Žofie.
French has the (disyllabic) hypocoristic Sophie, which was also introduced in German, Dutch/Flemish, English, and Scandinavian in the spelling Sofie and Sophy. A Dutch hypocoristic is Sofieke. Russian has the hypocoristic Соня (Sonya), which in the late 19th century was introduced to Western languages, in the spellings Sonya, Sonia and Sonja, via characters with this name in the novels Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866, English translation 1885) and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869, English translation 1886).
Turkish Safiye is from the unrelated Arabic Safiyya ( "pure").
Persian Sofia (Persian: صوفیا) is from unrelated Sufi, a sect of Islam.
Saints Saint Sophia of Milan, feast day 17 September Saint Sophia of Rome, martyr, feast day 15 May
Royalty Sofia Sofia of Bavaria Wittelsbach (1376–1425), Queen of Bohemia Queen Sofía of Spain (born 1938), Queen consort of Spain Princess Sofia, Duchess of Värmland (born 1984), wife of Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland Infanta Sofía of Spain (born 2007), a Spanish princess
Sophia Sophia (530–c. 601), 6th-century Byzantine empress Sophia, 10th-century Byzantine empress Sophia of Minsk (d. 1198), Danish queen Sophia of Halshany (1405–1461), Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania Sophia Palaiologina (1455–1503), Grand Duchess of Moscow Sophia Stuart (1606), daughter of James VI and I Sophia of Hanover (1630–1714), heir to the English throne Sophia Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1636–1689), German noblewoman Sophia Alekseyevna (1657–1704), Russian regent Sophia Dorothea of Celle (1666–1726), Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, wife of George I of Great Britain Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (1687–1757), Queen Consort of Prussia, daughter of George I of Great Britain Sophia Magdalen of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1700–1770), Queen consort of Denmark-Norway Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia (1719–1765), daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover Margravine Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1736–1798), Duchess of Württemberg Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1758–1794), Princess and Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom (1768–1840), Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom (1777–1848), British princess Princess Sophia of Gloucester (1773–1844), British princess Sophia Sidney, Baroness De L'Isle and Dudley (1796–1837), daughter of William IV Sophia of Nassau (1836–1913), Queen Consort of Sweden and Norway Sophia of Prussia (1870–1932), Queen consort of Greece Sophia Bulkeley, Scottish Jacobite courtier Sophia Campbell (1777–1833), early Australian settler Sophia Chichester (1795–1847), English patron of religious and political unorthodoxy Sophia Crichton-Stuart, Marchioness of Bute (1809–1859), Scottish noblewoman Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères (1790–1840), British courtesan Sophia Desta (1934–2021), Princess of Ethiopia Sophia Howe (1762–1835), British noblewoman Sophia Kingdom (1775–1855), British aristocrat Sophia Amalia Marschalk, Danish noble and courtier Sophia Palaiologina (c. 1449–1503), Byzantine princess Sophia Razumovskaya (1746–1803), Russian courtier Sophia Sidney, Baroness De L'Isle and Dudley (1796–1837), British baroness Sophia Stuart (1606), English princess Sophia Sergeyevna Trubetskaya (1836–1898), Russian princess
Other versions Safiye Sultan (1550–1619), wife of Murad III, mother of Mehmed III; originally named Sofia Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (1914–2001), later Princess of Hesse, Princes of Hannover Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh (born 1965), wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh Sofya Shcherbatova (1798–1885), Russian philanthropist Sofya Urusova (1804–1889), Russian lady-in-waiting and the favourite of Nicholas I
Arts and entertainment
Sofia (Filipino singer), Filipino singer Sofia (Swedish singer) (née Sofia Berntson), Swedish singer Sophia Abrahão (born 1991), Brazilian actress Sofia Achaval de Montaigu, Argentine fashion model Sofia Adlersparre (1808–1862), Swedish artist Sophia Agranovich, Ukrainian-American pianist, recording artist and music educator Sofia Ahlbom (1803–1868), Swedish artist Sophia Ahrens (born 1996), German-English fashion model Sofia Akimova (1824–1889), Russian actress Sophia Al Maria, Arabic-American artist, writer and filmmaker Sofia Alaoui, French-Moroccan director and screenwriter Sofia Alexander, Mexican animator and voice actress Sophia Ali (born 1995), American actress Sophia Aliberti (born 1963), Greek actress and TV presenter Sophia Nahli Allison, American filmmaker and photographer Sofia Alves (born 1973), Portuguese actress Sofia Amara (born 1968), French-Moroccan journalist Sofia Andres (born 1998), Filipina actress and commercial model Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919–2004), Portuguese poet Sofia Andrukhovych (born 1982), Ukrainian writer and translator Sofia Aparício (born 1970), Portuguese model and actress Sofia Areal, Portuguese artist Sophia Arvaniti (born 1968), Greek singer Sofia Ashraf, Indian rapper and singer Sophia Baddeley (1745–1786), English actress Sofia Bano (1938–2024), Pakistani film actress Sofia Banzhaf (born 1991), Canadian actress and filmmaker Sofia Barclay (born 1988), English actress Sophia Barclay (born 2000), Brazilian performer Sofía Bassi (1913–1998), Mexican artist Sophia Beale (1837–1920), British portrait painter Sophia Bennett, British writer Sofia Black-D'Elia (born 1991), American actress Sofía Blanco, Guatemalan singer Sofia Bohdanowicz, Canadian film director Sofia Boutella (born 1982), French-Algerian actress, model and dancer Sofía Bozán (1904–1958), Argentine actress and dancer Sophia Briscoe, English author Sophia Brous, Australian singer Sofia Bryant (born 1999), American-Finnish actress Sophia Burrell, English poet and dramatist Sophia Bush (born 1982), American actress Sophia Cacciola, American film director Sophia Alice Callahan (1868–1894), American novelist Sofia Camara, (born 2002), Portuguese-Canadian musician Sofía Camará (born 1991), Argentine drag performer Sofía Cancino de Cuevas (1897–1982), Mexican composer, pianist, opera promoter, singer and conductor Sofia Carson (born 1993), American singer and actress Sophia Anne Caruso (born 2001), American actress Sofía Casanova (1861–1958), Spanish poet, novelist and journalist Sofía Castro (born 1996), Mexican actress Sophia Chang, Korean-American music director, manager and author Sofia Charlebois (1887–1948), American opera singer Sofiko Chiaureli (1937–2008), Georgian actress Sophia Choi (born 1971), American news broadcaster Sofia Asunción Claro (born 1944), Chilean-born classical harpist Sofia Coll (born 1999), Spanish singer, dancer and actress Sofia Coppola (born 1971), American actress and director Sofía Córdova, Puerto Rican artist Sofia Crespo (born 1991), Argentine visual artist Sophia Dashing, American singer-songwriter Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919–2004), Portuguese poet and writer Sofía del Prado (born 1995), Spanish model Sophia Dellaporta, Greek composer Sophia Delza (1903–1996), American modern dancer, choreographer, author, and practitioner of Wu-style tai chi Sofia Depassier, Chilean beauty pageant titleholder Sophia Di Martino (born 1983), English actress Sofia Djama, Algerian film director Sophia Domancich (born 1957), French pianist and jazz composer Sophia Dominguez-Heithoff (born 2000), Mexican-American model and beauty queen Sophia Dussek (1775–1831), Scottish composer Sophia May Eckley (1823–1874), American poet Sofia El Marikh (born 1981), Moroccan singer Sofia Ellar (born 1993), Spanish singer and songwriter Sofia Escobar (born 1984), Portuguese soprano singer and actress Sofía Espinosa (born 1989), Mexican actress, writer and director Sofia Essaïdi (born 1984), Franco-Moroccan singer Sofia Ester, Portuguese writer Sophia Everest (born 1992), Burmese singer and actress Sophia Ewaniuk (born 2002), Canadian actress Sophia Lyon Fahs (1876–1978), American writer Sophia Forero (born 1967), American jewelry designer Sophia Foster-Dimino, American comics artist and illustrator Sophia Fredskild (born 1998), Danish-Malaysian singer-songwriter and composer Sofia Fuoco (1830–1916), Italian ballerina Sofía Gala (born 1987), Argentine actress Sophia Smith Galer (born 1994), British journalist Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Puerto Rican visual artist and filmmaker Sofía Gandarias (1957–2016), Spanish painter Sophia Gennusa (born 2003), American actress Sophia George (born 1964), Jamaican singer Sophia Gholz (born 1980), American writer Sofya Giatsintova (1895–1982), Soviet and Russian film and theatre actress Sofia Giordano (1778–1829), Italian artist Sofia Gisberg (1854–1926), Swedish sculptor, textile artist and educator Sofia Ameli Gojić (born 1968), Croatian mezzo-soprano Sofya Gollan, Australian actress