Humanverse

Sonia vs Sonora

American parents have registered 67,026 Sonias since 1880, against 1,444 Sonoras. Sonia is still ahead, with 171 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Sonia Sonora

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 2023, when Sonia had 183 and Sonora had 62.

Side by side

  Sonia Sonora
Total US births 67,0261,444
Most in one year 1,77762
Babies in 2025 17155
Estimated living today 58,0001,400
Median age today 4914
Peak year 19702023
Best rank 186th girls2,757th girls
Rank in 2025 1,299th2,998th
First recorded 18951924
Girls / boys 66,747 / 2791,444 / 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 Sonias alive today are over 49; half the Sonoras are over 14. That is 35 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 Sonora.