Sonia (name)
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 are used in many countries, including Russia, as a diminutive for Sofiya.
The name was popularised in the English-speaking world by characters in the novels Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 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.
Although the most common English pronunciation is, and are also possible.
Notable people
- Queen Sonja of Norway
- Sonia, alias of Omaira Rojas Cabrera, FARC-EP guerrilla member
- Sonya, cover name of the Soviet spy Ursula Kuczynski
- Sonia Balassanian, Iranian-born Armenian painter, sculptor, and curator
- Sonja Bakić, Serbian pop/rock singer
- Sonja Barjaktarović, Montenegrin handball goalkeeper
- Sonia Ben Ammar, French-Tunisian model
- Sonia Bermúdez Robles, Colombian thanatologist
- Sonja Berndt, American pharmacologist and cancer epidemiologist
- Sônia Braga, Brazilian actress
- Sonia Cheng, Hong Kong business executive
- Sonja Christopher, American Survivor contestant
- Sonia Citron, American basketball player
- Sonia Couling, Thai model, actress and TV personality
- Sonia Darrin, American film actress
- Sonia Disa, Sri Lankan Sinhala cinema actress
- Sonya Eddy, American actress
- Sonia Evans, English pop singer
- Sonia Fergina Citra, Indonesian beauty pageant titleholder who won Puteri Indonesia 2018
- Sonja Fransson, Swedish politician
- Sonia Gandhi, Indian politician, president of the Indian National Congress 1998–2017 and 2019–2022
- Sonya Haddad, American translator and surtitler
- Sonya Hartnett, Australian writer
- Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater and actress
- Sonja Hilmer, American figure skater
- Sonia Holleyman, British creator, author and illustrator of Mona the Vampire
- Sonia E. Howe, Russian essayist
- Sonia de Ignacio, Spanish field hockey player
- Sonia Ilinskagia, Greek-Russian writer, translator and professor
- Sonya Isaacs, American country/Christian music singer-songwriter
- Sonya Jeyaseelan, Canadian tennis player
- Sonia Kacem, Swiss visual artist
- Sonja Kokkonen, Finnish rhythmic gymnast
- Sonya Koshkina, Ukrainian journalist, editor-in-chief
- Sonja Kovač, Croatian actress and model
- Sonja Kristina, English singer, vocalist for Curved Air
- Sonija Kwok, Hong Kong actress
- Sonja Lang, Canadian linguist who constructed the language Toki Pona
- Sonia Lo, Hong Kong windsurfer
- Sonia Manzano, American actress
- Sonia Mazey, New Zealand political science academic
- Sonja McCullen, American judge
- Sonja Morgan, American television personality, The Real Housewives of New York City
- Sonia McMahon, Australian socialite, widow of William McMahon
- Sonia Singh, Indian television actress
- Sonia O'Sullivan, Irish athlete
- Sonia Opoku, Ghanaian footballer
- Sonia Peres, wife of Israel's Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres
- Sonia Purnell, British writer and journalist
- Sonia Raman, American basketball coach
- Sonia Rutstein, American musician of the band Disappear Fear
- Sonia Rykiel, French designer
- Sonja Savić, Serbian actress
- Sonya Scarlet, singer of Italian band Theatres des Vampires
- Sonja Smets, Belgian and Dutch logician
- Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
- Sonja Tate, American basketball player
- Sonya Tayeh, American dancer and choreographer
- Sonya Tayurskaya, Russian singer, member of Little Big
- Sonia Theodoridou, Greek soprano singer
- Sonja Vasić, Serbian basketball player
- Sonya Walger, English actress best known as Losts Penny Widmore
- Sonja Zhenikhova, German tennis player
- Zonja Wallen-Lawrence, Swedish-American biochemist, nutritionist
Fictional characters
- Red Sonja, archetypal fierce and beautiful barbarian
- Sonya in the Baby, Please Kill Me! 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, 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
- Sonya Rebecchi in the Australian soap opera Neighbours
- 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
- Sonya Simonson, an adaptation of Beautiful Dreamer in the The Gifted
- 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
- Queen Sonia, a character and the first queen of the kingdom of Hyrule in the video game ''The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom''
Pen name
- Sonia, pen name of the Italian journalist Ottavia Vitagliano