Sonya
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Russian pet form of Sofya (see Sophia), popular as a given name in its own right in Britain and elsewhere since the 1920s
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈsoʊnjə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Sonya is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country, where it is the 87th most common given name.
- SVEl Salvador≈1 in 205as Sonia(inferred from the name graph)
- PTPortugal≈1 in 399as Sonia
- ATAustria≈1 in 408as Sonja
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 Sonya 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.
- Brazil (measured from records)
- #216 (measured from records)
- 8 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 524 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 205 (inferred from the name graph)
323,710 named Sonia, 2022
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
El Salvador, est., as Sonia
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Sonia in US United States, BR Brazil, ES Spain and 3 more, Sonja in DE Germany, AT Austria and Soraya in FR France, EC Ecuador.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Russian pet form of Sofya (see Sophia), popular as a given name in its own right in Britain and elsewhere since the 1920s.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Sonya, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Sonya 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | #87 | 323,710as Sonia | 1 in 654 | 355K | Sonia | 196 |
| DE Germany | #128 | ≈110,000 est. | ≈1 in 700 | — | Sonja | 246 |
| US United States | #228 | 113,726as Sonia | 1 in 2.9K | 114K | Sonia | 524 |
| ES Spain | #36 | 98,076as Sonia | 1 in 510 | 98K | Sonia | 254 |
| FR France | #714 | ≈87,000 est. | ≈1 in 776 | 84K | Soraya | 286 |
| PE Peru | #80 | ≈78,000 est. | ≈1 in 411 | — | Sonia | 83 |
| EC Ecuador | #319 | 36,460as Sonia | 1 in 464 | 36K | Soraya | 61 |
| SV El Salvador | #76 | ≈32,000 est. | ≈1 in 205 | — | Sonia | 57 |
| PT Portugal | #51 | ≈26,000 est. | ≈1 in 399 | listed | Sonia | 158 |
| AT Austria | #64 | ≈22,000 est. | ≈1 in 408 | 4.7K | Sonja | 143 |
323,710 people counted by IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror), 2022. 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: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Nomes (census name API); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); INEC — civil registry names; Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024). 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)
Sonya 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.
The Russian form of Sophia. Both Sonya and its spelling variant, Sonja, have been noted in Ireland in modern times.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, A female given name from Russian Соня (Sonja).
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Portuguese, a female given name, variant of Sônia
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swahili, to whistle or click in contempt
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In umb, express astonishment by click
as a wordVocabulary of the Umbundu Language
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)
- Sonya Levienb. 1888USAmerican screenwriter (1888-1960)
- Sonya Hedenbrattb. 1931SESwedish jazz singer and actress
- Sonya Eddyb. 1967USAmerican actress (1967–2022)
- Serenityb. 1969USnot in their usual namepornographic actress from the United States
- Sonya Walgerb. 1974GBBritish-American actress
- Sonya Salomaab. 1974CAactress
- Sonya Yonchevab. 1981BGBulgarian opera singer
- Sonya Balmoresb. 1986USAmerican actress
- Sonya Cassidyb. 1987GBBritish actor
- Sonya Belousovab. 1990RURussian-born composer, pianist and recording artist
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)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 83 sources across 47 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 57K | #827 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2022 | 725 | #3,492 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 202 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 202 | #25,214 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 199 | #9,079 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 191 | #4,245 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 100 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 74 | #827 |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024) | 2024 | 35 | #1,868 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2000 | 20 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1988 | 5 | — |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — Vornamen der Geborenen (1984–present) | 2024 | 1 | #3,526 |
Reference works 3
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name 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 are other forms of the name Sonya?
- In the etymology graph, Sonia, Sofia and Sophie are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Sonya?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈsoʊnjə/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Sonya mean, and where does it come from?
- Russian pet form of Sofya (see Sophia), popular as a given name in its own right in Britain and elsewhere since the 1920s. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- Is Sonya a male or female name?
- Sonya is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Sonya have the most bearers?
- In Brazil, the national register counted about 324 thousand people named Sonia, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Sonya?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 323,710 people named Sonia in 2022, about 1 in 654 residents.
- How common is Sonya compared with other names?
- In Brazil, Sonya is the 87th most common given name of 474,894 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Sonya?
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/sonyaThe 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, “Sonya” — the 87th most common given name in Brazil. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.