Sondra
Feminine form of the Old Norse name Sandra, meaning "victorious protector".
Name Census estimates that about 16,890 living Americans carry the first name Sondra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sondra today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sondra births was 1942 (897 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sondra. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
17K
~ 1 in 20,293 Americans
Peak year
1942
897 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,250
Tracked since 1912
Census
Sondra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 21,227 people with the first name Sondra, which placed it at #1,543 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,543
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
21,227 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sondra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sondra is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.0%) and Hispanic (3.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Sondra described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Sondra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.5% · 17,293
- Black or African American11.0% · 2,335
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 706
- Two or more races3.1% · 654
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 131
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 108
Popularity
Sondra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sondra from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 6,729 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sondra by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Sondra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sondras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. New York, Ohio, California recorded the most babies named Sondra, while North Dakota, Alaska, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 555 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sondra
The name Sondra is a variant of the Germanic name Sandra, which is derived from the Greek name Alexandra. The name Alexandra is a combination of the Greek words "alexo," meaning "to defend," and "andros," meaning "man." The name Sandra and its variant Sondra became popular in the English-speaking world in the 20th century.
The earliest recorded use of the name Sondra dates back to the late 19th century. One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Sondra was Sondra Batson, an American actress born in 1928. She appeared in several films and television shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Another notable figure with the name Sondra was Sondra Locke, an American actress, and director born in 1944. She starred in several films directed by Clint Eastwood, including The Outlaw Josey Wales and Sudden Impact. Locke was also known for her work as a director and producer.
In the world of literature, Sondra Marshak was an American author and translator born in 1945. She was best known for her translations of Russian literature, including works by Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.
Sondra Radvanovsky is an American operatic soprano born in 1978. She has performed leading roles in operas by composers such as Verdi, Puccini, and Donizetti, and has been praised for her powerful and expressive voice.
Sondra Locke, an American actress and director, was born in 1944 and passed away in 2018. She had a successful career in the entertainment industry, starring in several films and directing television movies.
While the name Sondra has its origins in the Greek language and gained popularity in the 20th century, it has been embraced by individuals from various cultural backgrounds and has been associated with notable figures in the fields of acting, literature, and music.
People
Sondra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sondra as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sondra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sondra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16,890 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sondra going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 20,293 US residents.
Is Sondra a common name?
We classify Sondra as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 27,067 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sondra most popular?
The single biggest year for Sondra was 1942, when 897 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sondra is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sondra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 21,227 people with the name Sondra, or 7.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,543 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Sondra in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Sondra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sondra appears almost entirely female. Of the 21,227 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Sondra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sondra is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.0%) and Hispanic (3.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Sondra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sondra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.5% (17,293 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Sondra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sondra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sondra in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Sondra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sondra in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Sondra can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Sondra?
Want to know how many people share the name Sondra? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.