Humanverse

Sonia vs Sonji

American parents have registered 67,026 Sonias since 1880, against 904 Sonjis. Sonia is still ahead, with 171 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sonia against Sonji, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sonia Sonji

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Sonia has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1895 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1966, when Sonia had 1,539 and Sonji had 225.

Side by side

  Sonia Sonji
Total US births 67,026904
Most in one year 1,777225
Babies in 2025 171under 5
Estimated living today 58,000820
Median age today 4958
Peak year 19701966
Best rank 186th girls639th girls
Rank in 2025 1,299thunranked
First recorded 18951951
Girls / boys 66,747 / 279904 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sonjis alive today are over 58; half the Sonias are over 49. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sonia and Sonji.