Sonia (name)

Look up Sonia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Sonia is a feminine given name in many areas of the world including the West, Russia, Iran, and South Asia. Sonia and its variant spellings Sonja and Sonya are Russian variations on Sophia, a Greek name meaning "wisdom".^[1] The name was popularised by a 1917 bestselling novel, Sonia, by Stephen McKenna.^[1]

In Hindi, the name means "golden",^[2] derived from सोना sonāa "gold", from Sanskrit सुवर्ण suvarṇa (su "good" + varṇa "color").

Sonya and its variations are occasionally found as surnames in England and the American eastern seaboard.

First name

The name appears in multiple languages including Bengali, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, English,Persian, Finnish, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Greece, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian,Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.

Sonia has many variant spellings and related name forms, among them Sonja, Sonje, Sonni, Sonnie, Sonnjea, and Sonya. Sonya is variant of Sophia (Greek) which has 18 variant forms: Saffi, Safiye, Sofia, Sofie, Soficita, Sofka, Sofy, Sofya, Sonja, Sonnie, Sonya, Sophey, Sophie, Sophy, Soňa, Zofia, Zofi, Žofia, Zofya, and Zosia.

Slavic countries spell the name with the letter "j": Sonja, while many English speaking countries spell it with "i" or "y": Sonia or Sonya. These are only variations on the same name.

As a last name in the United States

Sonya is a rare surname in the United States, and was not ranked for people of any age in publications of results of the 1990 Census. The spelling Sonya is of English descent. Spelling variations include: Sonning, Sonnin, Sonin, Soning, Sunning, Sunin, Souning, Sounin, Sonninges, Somin, Somings, and many more. The surname Sonya was first located in Berkshire where they were anciently seated as Lords of the Manor. Some of the first American settlers named Sonya or some of its variants migrated in the mid-17th century to the eastern seaboard. Migrants eventually settled in Newfoundland, Maine, Virginia, The Carolinas, and the islands.

Notable people with this name

• Sonja, Queen of Norway
• Sonia (Sonia Evans), English pop singer
• SONiA (Sonia Rutstein), American singer-songwriter
• Sonia, alias of Omaira Rojas Cabrera, FARC-EP guerrilla member
• Sonja Bakić, Serbian pop/rock singer
• Sônia Braga, Brazilian actress
• Sonja Christopher, reality television star
• Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress
• Sonya Hartnett, Australian writer
• Sonja Henie (1912-1969), Norwegian figure skater and actress
• Sonia Holleyman, creator, author and illustrator of Mona the Vampire.
• Sonia de Ignacio, Spanish field hockey player
• Sonja Elen Kisa, Canadian linguist
• Sonia McMahon (1932-2010), Australian socialite, widow of William McMahon
• Sonia O'Sullivan, Irish athlete
• Sonia Rykiel, French designer
• Sonya Scarlet, Singer of Italian band Theatres des Vampires
• Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States
• Sonya Tayeh, American dancer and coreographer.
• Sonya Walger, actress best known as Lost's Penny Widmore

Fictional characters

• Red Sonja, archetypal fierce and beautiful barbarian
• Sonja from the Underworld series of vampire films
• Sonya Blade from the Mortal Kombat series of video games
• Sonya (ソーニャ, Sōnya) from the Baby, Please Kill Me! of Japanese four-panel manga
• Sonia Fowler in EastEnders
• Sonya Rostova in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Sonya Marmeladova in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Sonya Serebryakova in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
• Sonia Strumm rock star in the Mega Man Star Force series of video games

Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Martin-Doyle, Katie (1999). The Treasury of Baby Names. Cambridge: Worth Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-903025-11-6. 
2. ↑ Baby Name Indian Girl: Girl Baby names beginning with S

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