Sonita
A feminine name of Hindi origin meaning "beautiful woman" or "golden".
Name Census estimates that about 176 living Americans carry the first name Sonita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sonita today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sonita births was 1974 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sonita. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Sonita with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
176
~ 1 in 1,947,468 Americans
Peak year
1974
12 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2012 SSA rank
#14,792
Tracked since 1957
Census
Sonita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 426 people with the first name Sonita, which placed it at #23,110 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
#23,110
National first-name rank
People counted
426
426 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
40.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sonita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sonita is Asian/Pacific Islander at 40.4%. The next largest groups are Black (31.0%) and White (16.4%). 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 Sonita 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 Sonita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander40.4% · 172
- Black or African American31.0% · 132
- White16.4% · 70
- Two or more races8.5% · 36
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Popularity
Sonita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sonita from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 50 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sonita 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 Sonita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sonita
The name Sonita is believed to have originated from the Sanskrit language, which is an ancient Indo-Aryan language that dates back to the 2nd millennium BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "Sunita," which means "well-mannered" or "virtuous."
In Hindu mythology, Sunita was the name of one of the wives of the Sun god, Surya. The name is also associated with the Sanskrit word "Sona," meaning "gold," which may have contributed to its popularity as a name for baby girls.
The earliest recorded use of the name Sonita can be traced back to ancient Indian texts and inscriptions from the 5th century BCE. It was a popular name among the Hindu community during the classical period of Indian history.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Sonita was Princess Sonita Devi, a member of the Maurya dynasty, who lived in the 3rd century BCE. She was known for her beauty and grace.
In the 12th century CE, there was a famous poetess and philosopher named Sonita Devi, who was highly regarded for her wisdom and intellectual prowess.
During the Mughal era in India, which spanned from the 16th to the 19th century, the name Sonita was popular among the royal families and aristocracy.
In more recent times, one notable individual with the name Sonita was Sonita Alizadeh, an Afghan rapper and activist who gained international recognition for her advocacy for women's rights and her powerful rap music. She was born in 1997 and continues to inspire people around the world with her courage and resilience.
Another person with the name Sonita was Sonita Alleyne, a British-born musician and singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s with her soulful voice and unique style of music. She was born in 1951 and passed away in 2022.
Sonita Jalan is an Indian actress and model who has appeared in various Bollywood films and television shows since the late 1990s. She was born in 1976 and continues to work in the entertainment industry.
Sonita Henry was a renowned Guyanese writer and poet who was known for her captivating works that explored themes of identity, culture, and social issues. She lived from 1944 to 2019 and left a lasting legacy in the literary world.
People
Sonita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sonita 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
Sonita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sonita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 176 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sonita 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 1,947,468 US residents.
Is Sonita a common name?
We classify Sonita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 195 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sonita most popular?
The single biggest year for Sonita was 1974, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sonita is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sonita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 426 people with the name Sonita, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,110 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 Sonita 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 Sonita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sonita leans strongly female. 425 people counted with this name were female (98.4%), compared with 7 male bearers (1.6%). 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 Sonita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sonita is Asian/Pacific Islander at 40.4%. The next largest groups are Black (31.0%) and White (16.4%). 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 Sonita most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Sonita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.4% (172 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 Sonita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sonita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sonita 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 Sonita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sonita 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 Sonita 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 are called Sonita?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.