Sou

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Locally spelled Zoe in US United States, GB United Kingdom, AR Argentina and 2 more, Zoé in FR France and Zoë in NL Netherlands.

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)

Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.

How Sou is read●(measured from records)

Sou is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• English34%

  An old French copper coin equal to one twentieth of a livre or twelve deniers; one sou is to the livre as one shilling is to the pound.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Japanese14%

  Rōmaji transcription of そう

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• French13%

  sou (old French coin)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Arabic9.8%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Sou in Arabic.

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Sou is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese given name19 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Portugal, Angola

  Also written Sôû, Sôü, Söü, Sõû, Sổu

• Khmer given name5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Algeria, Canada, Cambodia

  Also written Šǭū, Sôu, Sõu, Sôû

• Hindi given name9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Šőů, Sőû, Soù, Śôů, Śôű

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Şou

53 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Sou is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Chinese, nonstandard spelling of sōu

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In cdo, Also read ^sieii and ^s6 : tH^S a general term for veesels,

  as a word·An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect

• In cdo, a boat, a junk, a ship; chiek. a boat and oars. 9 n

  as a word·An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect

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. 1910JPnot in their usual nameJapanese actor (1910–2000)
• Sō Kuramotob. 1935JPnot in their usual nameJapanese screenwriter
• So Aonob. 1943JPnot in their usual nameJapanese writer
• Sō Kitamurab. 1952JPnot in their usual nameJapanese playwright, director (1952-)
• So Taguchib. 1969JPnot in their usual nameJapanse baseball player
• Sō Takeib. 1973JPnot in their usual nameJapanese TV personality, decathlete, sprinter
• Sō Hirosawab. 1979JPnot in their usual nameJapanese actress and voice actress
• Sō Hamayumibab. 1986JPnot in their usual nameJapanese mangaka and illustrator
• Sō Sagarab. 1986JPnot in their usual nameJapanese novelist
• So Fujitanib. 1997JPnot in their usual nameJapanese 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)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Sou mean, and where does it come from?

An old French copper coin equal to one twentieth of a livre or twelve deniers; one sou is to the livre as one shilling is to the pound. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

How do you pronounce Sou?

A machine transcription gives /sˈuː/ (IPA) for English.

Is Sou a male or female name?

Sou 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 Sou have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 126 thousand people named Zoe, more than in any other country we hold.

Where is Sou most common?

No national register we hold counts the spelling Sou itself. The densest figure for its family of spellings is Hungary's: the national register counts about 1 in 693 people named Zoé.

How common is the name Sou?

In the United States, the national register counted 125,886 people named Zoe in 2020, about 1 in 2.6 thousand residents.

How common is Sou compared with other names?

In Hong Kong, Sou is the 76th most common given name of 23,276 given names recorded there.