Sora
Of Japanese origin meaning "sky" or "celestial".
Name Census estimates that about 2,267 living Americans carry the first name Sora. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Sora today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sora births was 2022 (169 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sora. 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 Sora with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Sora is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 151,193 Americans
Peak year
2022
169 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,972
Tracked since 1972
Census
Sora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,928 people with the first name Sora, which placed it at #7,763 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
#7,763
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,928 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sora is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (36.7%) and Two or More Races (15.1%). 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 Sora 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 Sora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.8% · 710
- Asian and Pacific Islander36.7% · 707
- Two or more races15.1% · 291
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 154
- Black or African American2.8% · 54
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Sora
Sora is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,299 total registrations, 600 (26.1%) were male and 1,699 (73.9%) were female.
Sora as a male name
- Ranked #2,300 in 2024
- 62 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (77 births)
Sora as a female name
- Ranked #1,972 in 2024
- 100 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (108 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sora leans strongly female. 1,591 people counted with this name were female (82.4%), compared with 339 male bearers (17.6%).
Popularity
Sora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sora from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 859 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sora 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 Sora during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Soras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. California, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Sora, while Virginia, Minnesota, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 48 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sora
The name Sora has its origins in multiple cultures and languages, with varying meanings and historical references.
In Japanese, the name Sora (そら or 空) means "sky" or "heaven." It is a unisex name widely used in Japan and has been found in historical records dating back to the Heian period (794-1185 CE). The name was often associated with Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, where the sky was revered as a sacred realm.
In Italian, the name Sora is derived from the Latin word "aura," meaning "breeze" or "gentle wind." It was a popular name in ancient Rome and has been traced back to the 1st century CE. Sora was also the name of a town in the Lazio region of Italy, which may have influenced the name's usage.
In Hebrew, the name Sora (שׂרה) is a variation of Sarah, meaning "princess" or "noblewoman." It has biblical roots and was the name of the wife of Abraham in the Old Testament. This name has been in use since ancient times and has maintained its popularity throughout Jewish history.
In Greek mythology, Sora was the name of one of the Horae, goddesses representing the seasons and the natural portions of time. She was associated with the summer season and depicted as a young woman carrying a basket of fruit and flowers.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Sora was Sora av Beit Shammai, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 1st century BCE and was a contemporary of Hillel the Elder. In the 12th century, Sora ben Joseph was a prominent French Torah scholar and author.
In the 15th century, Sora Narishige was a Japanese warrior and samurai who served under the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. During the 16th century, Sora Anticli was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked in the Renaissance style.
In the 19th century, Sora Abraham was a pioneering educator and writer in the Malayalam language, known for her contributions to promoting women's education in Kerala, India. Sora Maṉikkavāchakar was a Tamil poet and scholar who lived during the same period.
Sora Shunputsu was a Japanese poet and calligrapher active in the early 20th century, renowned for her works in the traditional tanka and haiku forms. Sora Choi, a prominent South Korean artist and sculptor, gained recognition for her abstract and minimalist works in the latter half of the 20th century.
People
Sora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sora 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
Sora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,267 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sora 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 151,193 US residents.
Is Sora a common name?
We classify Sora as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,299 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sora most popular?
The single biggest year for Sora was 2022, when 169 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sora is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,928 people with the name Sora, or 0.64 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,763 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 Sora 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 Sora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sora leans strongly female. 1,591 people counted with this name were female (82.4%), compared with 339 male bearers (17.6%). 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 Sora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sora is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (36.7%) and Two or More Races (15.1%). 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 Sora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.8% (710 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 Sora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sora a female name?
Yes, 73.9% of people registered as Sora 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 Sora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sora 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 Sora 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 named Sora?
Find out how many Americans are named Sora on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.