Meaning not yet researched.
Sonja: US girls given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 37 in 2025. Its best rank was #180 in 1938.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #180 in 1938; #3,966 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Sonja in 2025 was a girl.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#3,966 for US girls in 2025. Its best year was 1938, at #180.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Sonja: US girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 37 girls in 2025. Peak: #180 in 1938 · most girls in one year: 1,339 (1968).
In 2025, 37 US girls were named Sonja, making it the 3,966th most common girls’ name of the year, down 991 places from #2,975 in 2024. That is 19 fewer than the 56 girls named Sonja in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #180, reached in 1938. The most girls given the name in a single year was 1,339, in 1968. For comparison, it was #2,207 in 2015 and #436 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Sonja in 114 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1906 with 6 babies. In all, 39,557 US babies have been given the name, 99.8% of them girls and 0.1% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1960s, with 10,976 babies named Sonja.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 660 US girls were named Sonja; the busiest of those years was 2016, with 92. In 2025 that was about 1 in 43,440 of the girls in SSA’s list for the year.
Related spellings in the SSA files include Sofia (186,931 babies since 1880), Sonia (67,026 babies since 1880) and Sonya (65,954 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Sunjai, Sanja and Sunjay are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Wikidata records this spelling as a given name in Dutch and Slovene. That is where the name is used, not necessarily where it comes from.
Rare spellings summarised here: Sunjai (131), Sanja (123), Sunjay (49), Sunja (11), Sonjay (10).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Sonja in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 37 | #3,966 | — | — |
| 2024 | 56 | #2,975 | — | — |
| 2023 | 65 | #2,698 | — | — |
| 2022 | 40 | #3,822 | — | — |
| 2021 | 68 | #2,582 | — | — |
| 2020 | 76 | #2,337 | — | — |
| 2019 | 80 | #2,284 | — | — |
| 2018 | 77 | #2,385 | — | — |
| 2017 | 69 | #2,568 | — | — |
| 2016 | 92 | #2,124 | — | — |
| 2015 | 86 | #2,207 | — | — |
| 2014 | 110 | #1,850 | — | — |
| 2013 | 110 | #1,846 | — | — |
| 2012 | 114 | #1,800 | — | — |
| 2011 | 108 | #1,869 | — | — |
| 2010 | 110 | #1,858 | — | — |
| 2009 | 121 | #1,790 | — | — |
| 2008 | 120 | #1,814 | — | — |
| 2007 | 105 | #1,969 | — | — |
| 2006 | 128 | #1,662 | — | — |
| 2005 | 127 | #1,607 | — | — |
| 2004 | 133 | #1,519 | — | — |
| 2003 | 114 | #1,686 | — | — |
| 2002 | 110 | #1,682 | — | — |
| 2001 | 106 | #1,712 | — | — |
| 2000 | 123 | #1,502 | — | — |
| 1999 | 146 | #1,274 | — | — |
| 1998 | 159 | #1,179 | — | — |
| 1997 | 151 | #1,203 | — | — |
| 1996 | 141 | #1,243 | — | — |
| 1995 | 121 | #1,367 | — | — |
| 1994 | 169 | #1,072 | — | — |
| 1993 | 169 | #1,080 | — | — |
| 1992 | 196 | #978 | — | — |
| 1991 | 206 | #933 | — | — |
| 1990 | 237 | #831 | — | — |
| 1989 | 272 | #727 | — | — |
| 1988 | 294 | #658 | — | — |
| 1987 | 303 | #631 | — | — |
| 1986 | 318 | #606 | — | — |
| 1985 | 303 | #621 | — | — |
| 1984 | 266 | #659 | — | — |
| 1983 | 314 | #573 | — | — |
| 1982 | 372 | #526 | — | — |
| 1981 | 401 | #502 | — | — |
| 1980 | 397 | #508 | — | — |
| 1979 | 438 | #460 | — | — |
| 1978 | 481 | #422 | — | — |
| 1977 | 518 | #401 | — | — |
| 1976 | 583 | #361 | — | — |
| 1975 | 615 | #354 | — | — |
| 1974 | 754 | #309 | — | — |
| 1973 | 884 | #278 | 9 | #3,659 |
| 1972 | 1,191 | #233 | — | — |
| 1971 | 1,188 | #247 | 6 | #4,842 |
| 1970 | 1,310 | #238 | — | — |
| 1969 | 1,314 | #229 | — | — |
| 1968 | 1,339 | #222 | — | — |
| 1967 | 1,335 | #220 | 8 | #3,203 |
| 1966 | 1,321 | #226 | 6 | #3,896 |
| 1965 | 1,125 | #255 | — | — |
| 1964 | 1,051 | #278 | — | — |
| 1963 | 995 | #294 | — | — |
| 1962 | 857 | #321 | — | — |
| 1961 | 867 | #320 | — | — |
| 1960 | 758 | #347 | — | — |
| 1959 | 678 | #365 | — | — |
| 1958 | 524 | #406 | — | — |
| 1957 | 531 | #398 | — | — |
| 1956 | 471 | #418 | — | — |
| 1955 | 445 | #419 | — | — |
| 1954 | 426 | #422 | — | — |
| 1953 | 413 | #429 | — | — |
| 1952 | 389 | #434 | — | — |
| 1951 | 397 | #419 | — | — |
| 1950 | 345 | #436 | — | — |
| 1949 | 412 | #391 | — | — |
| 1948 | 424 | #386 | — | — |
| 1947 | 496 | #362 | — | — |
| 1946 | 484 | #337 | — | — |
| 1945 | 455 | #317 | — | — |
| 1944 | 405 | #342 | — | — |
| 1943 | 525 | #304 | 5 | #3,981 |
| 1942 | 600 | #278 | — | — |
| 1941 | 567 | #268 | — | — |
| 1940 | 713 | #238 | — | — |
| 1939 | 862 | #203 | 5 | #3,918 |
| 1938 | 1,117 | #180 | 5 | #3,971 |
| 1937 | 560 | #263 | — | — |
| 1936 | 180 | #479 | — | — |
| 1935 | 92 | #704 | — | — |
| 1934 | 86 | #723 | — | — |
| 1933 | 54 | #935 | — | — |
| 1932 | 70 | #823 | — | — |
| 1931 | 51 | #983 | — | — |
| 1930 | 71 | #853 | — | — |
| 1929 | 37 | #1,239 | — | — |
| 1928 | 29 | #1,499 | — | — |
| 1927 | 25 | #1,719 | — | — |
| 1926 | 25 | #1,713 | — | — |
| 1925 | 18 | #2,181 | — | — |
| 1924 | 20 | #2,054 | — | — |
| 1923 | 23 | #1,829 | — | — |
| 1922 | 21 | #1,950 | — | — |
| 1921 | 22 | #1,914 | — | — |
| 1920 | 11 | #3,071 | — | — |
| 1919 | 9 | #3,422 | — | — |
| 1918 | 17 | #2,194 | — | — |
| 1917 | 16 | #2,194 | — | — |
| 1916 | 15 | #2,230 | — | — |
| 1915 | 11 | #2,670 | — | — |
| 1914 | 13 | #1,998 | — | — |
| 1913 | 8 | #2,513 | — | — |
| 1906 | 6 | #1,925 | — | — |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).