Sole
Feminine · “solitude”
Sole looks like sunshine and is about grief. It is the Spanish short form of Soledad, solitude, and Soledad is a title of the Virgin Mary: Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, Our Lady of Solitude, Mary alone on the Saturday between the crucifixion and the resurrection.
How old is the name Sole?
Sole first appears in US birth records in 1999 — 26 years ago. The typical Sole alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Sole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sole most popular?
Sole peaked in 2000, reaching #3020 nationally. Today it ranks #6325, 3,305 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From solitas to Sole
The story of Sole
Spanish Catholic naming draws heavily on Marian titles, which is why Spanish records hold so many women called Dolores, Angustias, Amparo, Pilar, Rosario and Soledad; each names an aspect of the Virgin rather than a quality of the child, and several of them name a sorrow. Soledad is among the oldest, with confraternities dedicated to it in Spain from the sixteenth century and a strong presence in Mexico and the Philippines. Sole is the short form used at home. In United States records the short form appears independently from the 1980s, largely in Mexican-American and Central American families, and its best year is 2000.
Meaning
solitude
Spanish soledad, solitude or loneliness, from Latin solitas, from solus, alone. Sole is its everyday short form and inherits the sense. It is easily confused with Italian sole and Spanish sol, both meaning sun, which are unrelated words from Latin sol; the two look almost identical in writing and mean completely different things.
How the name formed
- solitas
- soledad
- Soledad
- Sole
Related forms: Soledad · Soledade · Solitudine
Pronouncing Sole
SOH-leh
Two syllables with the stress on the first and a clear final e. English speakers read it as the English word sole, one syllable, which is a different word again.
Nicknames for Sole
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1999
- Most girls named
- 200046 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3020reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- +5.9%18 in 2025, from 17
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sole in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Soledad in Spanish — related form
- Soledade in Portuguese — related form
- Solitudine in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Soles among us
people named Sole are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 89,293 born in 2025 was named Sole
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rocky test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sole's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rocky climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rocky's path sketches the road Sole is walking now.
Sole sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Sole beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sole in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning and a deep Spanish Catholic tradition behind it.
- Four letters, easy to write, and instantly recognized across the Spanish-speaking world.
- Chole and Solita are two very different affectionate forms already in use.
- English speakers will read it as the one-syllable English word.
- The meaning is solitude, which reads very differently outside the Marian context.
- It is a short form, so Spanish speakers may ask for the full Soledad.
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What they receive
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Sole
Feminine · #6325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Soles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Sole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sole in 2025?
- Sole ranks #6325 among US girl names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sole?
- About 1 in every 89,293 US girls born in 2025 was named Sole — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sole with classmates?
- Sole will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sole
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaye#6325 · Doria#6325 · Karolyn#6325 · Rosaleen#6325 · Roni#6325 · Darian#6325 · Svetlana#6325 · Fanny#6325
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sole? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sole and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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