So
given name · Latin script
Meaning: The Hebrew name 'So' (סוֹא) is widely considered a shortened form or abbreviation of the Egyptian name Osorkon (Wsr-kn)
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/soʊ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
So is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Bangladesh than in any other country. In India it is the 64th most common given name.
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 891(inferred from the name graph)
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 16K
- BDBangladesh≈1 in 18K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than So itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Bangladesh (inferred from the name graph)
- #691 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 66 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 891 (inferred from the name graph)
≈8,800 people, est.
of 15M given names
Highest-authority source
Hong Kong, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Soo in MY Malaysia.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
The Hebrew name 'So' (סוֹא) is widely considered a shortened form or abbreviation of the Egyptian name Osorkon (Wsr-kn).
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 30 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
So counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BD Bangladesh | — | ≈8,800 est. | ≈1 in 18K | — | So | 16 |
| HK Hong Kong | — | ≈8,100 est. | ≈1 in 891 | — | So | 30 |
| US United States | — | 3,613as Soo | 1 in 92K | 7.8K | So | 41 |
| PK Pakistan | — | ≈3,000 est. | ≈1 in 78K | — | So | 18 |
| FR France | — | ≈2,700 est. | ≈1 in 25K | 69 | — | — |
| KR South Korea | — | ≈2,700 est. | ≈1 in 19K | 825K | — | — |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 16K | — | Soo | 12 |
| BR Brazil | — | 83 | 1 in 2.6M | 4.1K | — | — |
| IN India | #64 | — | — | 1.2K | So | 66 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; KOSIS — 2015 census surnames; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
So is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In the biblical narrative, the appeal to So represents a futile reliance on foreign political alliances rather than on God, precipitating the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Reduced form of 'so that', used to express purpose; in order that.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, Biblical name
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In English, le; say so, ndé le; so that, ko woi; ni, so it is, nina and nini
as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language
In Akan, J) a, V, to disgrace, dishonour, defame^ cover with ignominy, bring public shame upon; to slander, calumniate; intr. to he dis- graced dtc; gsopame e.s. obo me din bone, obgme ahora a.s. ohye me aniwu wo guam', oyi m'anim anuonyam ; wo anim gu ase a, na woasopa [wo] mma nhina
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Sō Yamamurab. 1910JPJapanese actor (1910–2000)
- Sō Kuramotob. 1935JPJapanese screenwriter
- So Aonob. 1943JPJapanese writer
- Sō Kitamurab. 1952JPJapanese playwright, director (1952-)
- So Taguchib. 1969JPJapanse baseball player
- Sō Takeib. 1973JPJapanese TV personality, decathlete, sprinter
- Sō Hirosawab. 1979JPJapanese actress and voice actress
- Sō Hamayumibab. 1986JPJapanese mangaka and illustrator
- Sō Sagarab. 1986JPJapanese novelist
- So Fujitanib. 1997JPJapanese association football player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 46 sources across 27 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.7K | #6,750 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 598 | #6,750 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 83 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 64 | #47,007 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 23 | #59,160 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1993 | 8 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2017 | 5 | — |
Reference works 5
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name So mean, and where does it come from?
- The Hebrew name 'So' (סוֹא) is widely considered a shortened form or abbreviation of the Egyptian name Osorkon (Wsr-kn). Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- How do you pronounce So?
- A machine transcription gives /soʊ/ (IPA) for Hindi.
- Is So a male or female name?
- So is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- In which country does So have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 8.8 thousand people named So in Bangladesh, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled so.
- How common is the name So?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 83 people named So in 2022, about 1 in 2.6 million residents.
- How common is So compared with other names?
- In India, So is the 64th most common given name of 3,760,348 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about So?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/soThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “So” — the 64th most common given name in India. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.