Sonja
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "wisdom".
Name Census estimates that about 29,643 living Americans carry the first name Sonja. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sonja today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sonja births was 1967 (1,343 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sonja. 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.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Sonja have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
30K
~ 1 in 11,563 Americans
Peak year
1967
1,343 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
1973 SSA rank
#2,959
Tracked since 1906
Gender
Gender distribution for Sonja
Out of the 39,520 babies given the name Sonja since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Sonja as a male name
- Ranked #3,659 in 1973
- 9 male births in 1973
- Peak: 1973 (9 births)
Sonja as a female name
- Ranked #2,959 in 2024
- 56 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1968 (1,339 births)
Popularity
Sonja: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sonja from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 10,974 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sonja 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 Sonja during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sonjas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Sonja, while Rhode Island, Vermont, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 690 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sonja
The name Sonja is a feminine given name of Scandinavian origin, derived from the Old Norse name Sóndís or Sunniva. It is composed of two elements: "sōn" meaning "sun" and "dís" meaning "goddess" or "lady." The name was initially used in Norway and Sweden during the Viking era, around the 8th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Sonja Kovalevskaya, a Russian mathematician and writer who lived from 1850 to 1891. She was the first woman to hold a university chair in modern Europe and made significant contributions to the fields of partial differential equations and mechanics.
Another notable figure was Sonja Henie, a Norwegian figure skater who lived from 1912 to 1969. She was a three-time Olympic champion and a ten-time world champion, and is often regarded as one of the greatest figure skaters of all time.
In the 20th century, the name gained popularity across Europe and North America. Sonja Delaunay, a Ukrainian-born French artist, is known for her significant contributions to the Orphism art movement. She lived from 1885 to 1979 and was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964.
Sonja Zietlow is a German television presenter and actress born in 1968. She is best known for hosting the popular German reality show "Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!" (I'm a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!).
Sonja Sohn, an American actress and former police officer, was born in 1964. She is best known for her role as Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs on the acclaimed HBO series "The Wire."
While the name Sonja has roots in Scandinavian culture, it has been embraced and used across various regions and cultures throughout history. Its meaning, derived from the sun and goddess elements, has contributed to its enduring popularity as a feminine given name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sonja
People
Sonja + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sonja 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
Sonja: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sonja?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29,643 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sonja 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 11,563 US residents.
Is Sonja a common name?
We classify Sonja as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 39,520 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sonja most popular?
The single biggest year for Sonja was 1967, when 1,343 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sonja is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Sonja a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Sonja 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.
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.