Sonia (name)

Sonia
Pronunciation/ˈsɒniə/[1] SON-ee-ə
GenderFeminine
Origin
MeaningWisdom
Other names
Related namesSophia

Sonia is a feminine given name in many areas of the world including the West, Russia, Iran, and South Asia. Sonia and its variant spellings Sonja and Sonya is used in some countries as an abbreviation of Sofiya (Greek Sophia "Wisdom").[2]

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.[2]

Scandinavian countries spell the name with the letter j: Sonja, while many English speaking countries spell it with i or y: Sonia or Sonya.

Although the most common English pronunciation is /ˈsɒniə/, /ˈsoʊniə/[1] and /ˈsoʊnjə/[3] are also possible.

  1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel; Gimson, Alfred C. (1977) [1917]. Everyman's English Pronunciation Dictionary. Everyman's Reference Library (14 ed.). London: J. M. Dent & Sons. ISBN 0-460-03029-9.
  2. ^ a b Martin-Doyle, Katie (1999). The Treasury of Baby Names. Cambridge: Worth Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-903025-11-6.
  3. ^ https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Sonia [bare URL]