Sonjia
Feminine · “Wisdom”
Sonja Henie won three Olympic titles and then invented a film genre. She turned competitive figure skating into something choreographed and theatrical, went to Hollywood as soon as she stopped competing, and made a run of pictures built entirely around skating that nobody had thought was possible.
How old is the name Sonjia?
Sonjia first appears in US birth records in 1938 — 87 years ago. The typical Sonjia alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 900 people named Sonjia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sonjia most popular?
Sonjia peaked in 1967, reaching #1506 nationally. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Sofia to Sonjia
The story of Sonjia
She was also the reason skaters wear short skirts. Competing as a child against adults in ankle-length dresses, she wore what she could move in, and once she started winning everyone copied it; the jumps that the shorter skirt made possible followed within a decade. She was ruthlessly commercial about all of it, ran touring ice shows that filled arenas, and died one of the wealthiest women in Norway. Her reputation at home is complicated by her conduct during the occupation, which Norwegian writers have argued about ever since and which no account of her leaves out.
Meaning
Wisdom
The Russian everyday form of Sofia, from the Greek word for wisdom, which came into Russian with Byzantine Christianity. The Scandinavian spelling with a j arrived separately and is the one this name is built on, which is why the letter is there at all.
How the name formed
- Sofia
- Sonja
- Sonjia
Related forms: Sonja · Sonya
Pronouncing Sonjia
SON-yuh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The j in the Scandinavian spelling says y, and nothing on the page tells an English reader that, which is why the extra i was added here.
Nicknames for Sonjia
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
- 1938
- Most girls named
- 196755 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1506reached in 1967
- Change vs 1997
- −28.6%5 in 2007, from 7
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.
Sonjia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sonja in Norwegian — same name
- Sonya in Russian — transliteration
Sonjias among us
people named Sonjia are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Sonjia sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The extra letter makes the pronunciation explicit, which the standard spelling does not.
- The meaning is a single clear word and easy to give a child.
- Sofia sits behind it as a longer formal name if one is wanted.
- Sonja and Sonya are both commoner and both will be written instead.
- The spelling is a phonetic fix and reads as one.
- It is dated to the middle of the twentieth century in American use.
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Sonjia
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Sonjias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Sonjia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sonjia in 2025?
- Sonjia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Sonjia with classmates?
- Sonjia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sonjia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sonjia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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