Sonia is a feminine
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
in many areas of the world including
the West,
Russia,
Iran, and
South Asia. Sonia and its variant spellings Sonja and Sonya are derived from the Russian
hypocoristic ''Sonya'', an abbreviation of ''
Sofiya'' (Greek ''Sophia'' "Wisdom").
The name was popularised in the English-speaking world by characters in the novels ''
Crime and Punishment'' by
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866, English translation 1885) and ''
War and Peace'' by
Leo Tolstoy (1869, English translation 1886), and later by a
1917 bestselling novel, ''Sonia: Between Two Worlds'', by
Stephen McKenna.
Scandinavian countries spell the name with the letter ''j'': Sonja, while many English speaking countries spell it with ''i'' or ''y'': Sonia or Sonya.
Many other variant spellings exist.
Although the most common English pronunciation is , is also possible.
Notable people
*
Queen Sonja of Norway (born 1937)
* Sonia, alias of
Omaira Rojas Cabrera
Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, also known as Omaira Rojas Cabrera ( nom de guerre: Sonia) born in the Colombian town of Palestina, Huila Department, on 16 June 1967. She comes from a low-income peasant family and had only completed two years of middle ...
(born 1967), FARC-EP guerrilla member
* Sonya, cover name of the Soviet spy
Ursula Kuczynski (1907-2000)
*
Sonia Balassanian
Sonia Balassanian (, ; born 1942) née Sonia Amirian, is an Iranian-born painter, sculptor, and curator, of Armenian ethnicity. She co-founded the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art. Balassanian lives in New York City and Yerevan.
...
(born 1942), Iranian-born Armenian painter, sculptor, and curator
*
Sonja Bakić
Sonja Bakić ( sr-cyr, Соња Бакић; born 22 February 1984 in Sombor, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbs, Serbian singer and songwriter. She reached fame as a contestant in television show ''Operacija trijumf'', which was broadcast in five ...
(born 1984), Serbian pop/rock singer
*
Sonja Barjaktarović
Sonja Barjaktarović (born 11 September 1986) is a retired Montenegrin handball goalkeeper. She was the first goalkeeper of the Montenegro women's national handball team and helped them to win the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In 20 ...
(born 1986), Montenegrin handball goalkeeper
*
Sonia Ben Ammar (born 1999), French-Tunisian model
*
Sonja Berndt
Sonja Ingrid Berndt is an American pharmacologist and cancer epidemiologist who researches non-Hodgkin lymphoma, prostate cancer, and anthropometric traits that are cancer risk factors. She is a senior investigator in the occupational and envir ...
, American pharmacologist and cancer epidemiologist
*
Sônia Braga (born 1950), Brazilian actress
*
Sonja Christopher
'' Survivor'' is an American reality television show, based on the Swedish program, ''Expedition Robinson
''Robinson'', formerly ''Expedition Robinson'', is a Swedish reality game show and the original version of the international '' Surviv ...
, ''Survivor'' contestant
*
Sonia Couling
Sonia Couling (also spelled Sonia Cooling, Sonya Couling or Sonya Cooling) ( th, ซอนย่า คูลลิ่ง; June 18, 1974 in Bangkok, Thailand), nickname Pim ( th, พิม; ), is a Thai model, actress and television personality. ...
(born 1974), Thai model, actress and TV personality
*
Sonia Darrin (1924–2020), American film actress
*
Sonia Disa (born 1944), Sri Lankan Sinhala cinema actress
*
Sonya Eddy (1958-2022), American actress
*
Sonia Evans
Sonia Evans (born 13 February 1971), known mononymously as Sonia, is an English pop singer from Skelmersdale, near Liverpool. She had a 1989 UK number one hit "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" and became the first female UK artist to achiev ...
(born 1971), English pop singer
*
Sonia Fergina Citra (born 1993), Indonesian beauty pageant titleholder who won Puteri Indonesia 2018
*
Sonja Fransson
Sonja Ingrid Mildred Fransson (born 1949) is a Swedish politician and former member of the Riksdag, the national legislature. A member of the Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by man ...
(born 1949), Swedish politician
*
Sonia Gandhi
Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...
(born 1946), Former President of the Indian National Congress
*
Sonya Haddad (1936–2004), American translator and surtitler
*
Sonya Hartnett (born 1968), Australian writer
*
Sonja Henie (1912–1969), Norwegian figure skater and actress
*
Sonia Holleyman, creator, author and illustrator of ''Mona the Vampire''
*
Sonia E. Howe (born 1871), Russian essayist
*
Sonia de Ignacio (born 1971), Spanish field hockey player
*
Sonya Isaacs (born 1974), American
Country/
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
singer-songwriter
*
Sonya Jeyaseelan
Sonya Jeyaseelan (born April 24, 1976) is a Canadian former professional tennis player.
Her highest WTA singles ranking is No. 48, which she reached in December 2000. Her career-high ranking in doubles is world No. 40, achieved on 16 October 20 ...
, Canadian tennis player
*
Sonia Kacem
Sonia Kacem (born 1985) is a Swiss visual artist, of Swiss and Tunisian descent. She is known for her sculptures and installation art. She has lived in both Amsterdam, and Geneva.
Biography
Sonia Kacem was born in 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland. ...
(born 1985), Swiss visual artist
*
Sonya Koshkina
Sonya Koshkina (Ukrainian, Со́ня Ко́шкіна; alternate Romanizations, Sonja Koškina and Soni︠a︡ Koshkina; born, July 8, 1985) is the pen name of Ksenia Mykytivna Vasilenko (Ксенія Микитівна Василенко), a ...
(born 1985), Ukrainian journalist, editor-in-chief
*
Sonja Kovač (born 1984), Croatian actress and model
*
Sonja Kristina, (born Sonia Christina Shaw), notable for being the vocalist for
Curved Air
Curved Air are an English progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classical, folk, and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band is a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fus ...
*
Sonija Kwok (born 1974), actress
*
Sonja Lang
Sonja Lang (previously known as Sonja Elen Kisa, 1978) is a Canadian linguist and translator. She is best known for her creation of Toki Pona, a minimalist constructed language.
Biography
Lang was born and raised in Moncton, New Brunswick. S ...
, Canadian linguist who constructed the language
Toki Pona
*
Sonia Lo
Lo Sin Lam ( zh, 盧善琳, born 18 December 1992), known as Sonia Lo, is a Hong Kong windsurfer.
She qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the ca ...
(born 1992), Hong Kong windsurfer
*
Sonia Manzano, American actress
*
Sonja McCullen
Sonja McCullen is an American judge, lawyer and former educator who currently serves as a judge of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals.
Education
McCullen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal and Hawaiian studies from the University ...
, American judge
*
Sonja Morgan, Reality TV actress, ''The Real Housewives of New York City''
*
Sonia McMahon
Sonia Rachel McMahon, Lady McMahon (née Hopkins; 1 August 19322 April 2010), was an Australian socialite and philanthropist. She was the wife of William McMahon, who served as prime minister of Australia from 1971 to 1972, and the mother of act ...
(1932–2010), Australian socialite, widow of William McMahon
*
Sonia Singh (born 1964), Indian television actress
*
Sonia O'Sullivan (born 1969), Irish athlete
*
Sonia Opoku
Sonia Opoku (born 25 December 2001) is a Ghanaian international footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Indian Women's League club Misaka United and the Ghana women's national team. She previously played for Ghanaian club Ampem Darkoa La ...
, Ghanaian footballer
*
Sonia Peres (1923–2011), wife of Israel's Prime Minister and President
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
*
Sonia Purnell, writer and journalist
*
Sonia Rutstein
Disappear Fear (stylized as ''disappear fear'') is an American indie pop/indie folk/ Americana/ world beat band formed in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1987.
Biography
Disappear Fear is a songwriter, a band, a visual artist named Sonia Rutstein. Soni ...
of the band Disappear Fear
*
Sonia Rykiel
Sonia Rykiel (; ; 25 May 1930 – 25 August 2016) was a French fashion designer and writer. She created the Poor Boy Sweater, which was featured on the cover of French ''Elle'' magazine. Her knitwear designs and new fashion techniques led her t ...
(1930–2016), French designer
*
Sonja Savić (1961–2008), Serbian actress
*
Sonya Scarlet
Theatres des Vampires is an Italian gothic metal band, mostly noted for the predominant theme of vampirism within their lyrics. The band's early material was credited as melodic black metal or symphonic black metal, but the group completely a ...
(born 1980), singer of Italian band Theatres des Vampires
*
Sonja Smets, Belgian and Dutch logician
*
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
*
Sonya Tayeh, American dancer and choreographer
*
Sonia Theodoridou
Sonia Theodoridou ( el, Σόνια Θεοδωρίδου, links=no; born 1958) is a soprano from Veria, Greece who has performed prestigious operatic roles internationally.
Early life and education
Theodoridou was born in Veria in Macedonia, an ...
(born 1958), Greek soprano singer
*
Sonja Vasić (née Petrović; born 1989), Serbian basketball player
*
Sonja Vectomov (born 1979), Czech/Finnish composer/musician
*
Sonja Vectomov (sculptor)
Sonja Vectomov (born 8 June 1957) is a Czech sculptor based in Jyväskylä, Finland, known for her bronze statues of Finnish cultural figures.Siilahti, A."Sonja Vectomov tanssittaa pronssia" ''Etelä-Suomen Sanomat'', Feb 15, 2010.
In 2010 Vect ...
, Czech/Finnish sculptor
*
Sonya Walger (born 1974), English actress best known as ''Lost''s Penny Widmore
*
Sonia Zoberblatt
Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the ''Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, then ...
(Sandra Zober, 1927–2011), American actress, first wife of Leonard Nimoy
Fictional characters
*
Red Sonja, archetypal fierce and beautiful barbarian
* in the ''
Baby, Please Kill Me!
is a Japanese Yonkoma, four-panel gag comedy manga series written and illustrated by Kaduho which began serialization in Houbunsha's ''Manga Time Kirara Carat'' from July 2008. It follows the school lives of a high school girl Yasuna Oribe a ...
'' Japanese four-panel manga
*Sonya in the ''
Heroes of the Storm'', a video game by Blizzard Entertainment
*
Sonja in the ''Underworld'' series of vampire films
* Sonya Belikova in ''
Vampire Academy'' novels
* Sonia Belmont in ''
Castlevania Legends'', from the ''Castlevania'' series
*
Sonya Blade in the ''Mortal Kombat'' series of video games
* Sonia Cruz, a character in the Netflix series ''
Grand Army''
*
Sonia Fowler in British soap opera ''EastEnders''
* Sonia Ganguli in ''
The Namesake'' by Jhumpa Lahiri
*
Sonya Herfmann
The following is a list of characters from the Fox black comedy horror series '' Scream Queens''. The first season focuses on the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority in Wallace University, led by Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts), that is being targeted by a ...
, also known as Chanel #2, in the television series ''Scream Queens''
* Sonya Marmeladova in ''
Crime and Punishment'' by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* Sonia Nevermind in ''
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair''
* Sonia Rey in Argentine telenovela ''
Rebelde Way'' by Cris Morena
*
Sonya Rostova, character in ''War and Peace'' by Leo Tolstoy and the musical based on it, ''Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812''
* Sonya Ross in
''The Maze Runner'' novel series
* Sonia Solandres in ''
The Pink Panther 2''
* Sonya Serebryakova in ''
Uncle Vanya'' by Anton Chekhov
*
Sonia Strumm, rock star in the ''Mega Man Star Force'' series of video games
* Sonia Virena in television anime ''
Symphogear AXZ''
* Sonia, a character from the game ''
Pokémon Sword and Shield''
* Sonja, a character from the game ''
Advance Wars''
* Sonia, a character from the 1907 English Play ''
The Merry Widow''
Pen name
* Sonia, pen name of the Italian journalist
Ottavia Vitagliano
See also
*
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonia (Name)
Feminine given names
Russian feminine given names
Romanian feminine given names
Italian feminine given names
Spanish feminine given names
Portuguese feminine given names
Slavic feminine given names
Polish feminine given names