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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.
- Queen Sonja of Norway (born 1937)
- Sonia, alias of Omaira Rojas Cabrera (born 1967), FARC-EP guerrilla member
- Sonya, cover name of the Soviet spy Ursula Kuczynski (1907–2000)
- Sonia Balassanian (born 1942), Iranian-born Armenian painter, sculptor, and curator
- Sonja Bakić (born 1984), Serbian pop/rock singer
- Sonja Barjaktarović (born 1986), Montenegrin handball goalkeeper
- Sonia Ben Ammar (born 1999), French-Tunisian model
- Sonia Bermúdez Robles (born c. 1955), Colombian thanatologist
- Sonja Berndt, American pharmacologist and cancer epidemiologist
- Sônia Braga (born 1950), Brazilian actress
- Sonia Cheng, Hong Kong business executive
- Sonja Christopher, American Survivor contestant
- Sonia Couling (born 1974), Thai model, actress and TV personality
- Sonia Darrin (1924–2020), American film actress
- Sonia Disa (born 1944), Sri Lankan Sinhala cinema actress
- Sonya Eddy (1958–2022), American actress
- Sonia Evans (born 1971), English pop singer
- Sonia Fergina Citra (born 1993), Indonesian beauty pageant titleholder who won Puteri Indonesia 2018
- Sonja Fransson (born 1949), Swedish politician
- Sonia Gandhi (born 1946), Indian politician, president of the Indian National Congress 1998–2017 and 2019–2022
- Sonya Haddad (1936–2004), American translator and surtitler
- Sonya Hartnett (born 1968), Australian writer
- Sonja Henie (1912–1969), Norwegian figure skater and actress
- Sonia Holleyman, British creator, author and illustrator of Mona the Vampire
- Sonia E. Howe (1871–19??), Russian essayist
- Sonia de Ignacio (born 1971), Spanish field hockey player
- Sonya Isaacs (born 1974), American Country/Christian singer-songwriter
- Sonya Jeyaseelan, Canadian tennis player
- Sonia Kacem (born 1985), Swiss visual artist
- Sonya Koshkina (born 1985), Ukrainian journalist, editor-in-chief
- Sonja Kovač (born 1984), Croatian actress and model
- Sonja Kristina (born Sonia Christina Shaw), English singer, vocalist for Curved Air
- Sonija Kwok (born 1974), Hong Kong actress
- Sonja Lang, Canadian linguist who constructed the language Toki Pona
- Sonia Lo (born 1992), Hong Kong windsurfer
- Sonia Manzano, American actress
- Sonja McCullen, American judge
- Sonja Morgan, American television personality, The Real Housewives of New York City
- Sonia McMahon (1932–2010), Australian socialite, widow of William McMahon
- Sonia Singh (born 1964), Indian television actress
- Sonia O'Sullivan (born 1969), Irish athlete
- Sonia Opoku, Ghanaian footballer
- Sonia Peres (1923–2011), wife of Israel's Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres
- Sonia Purnell, British writer and journalist
- Sonia Rutstein, American musician of the band Disappear Fear
- Sonia Rykiel (1930–2016), French designer
- Sonja Savić (1961–2008), Serbian actress
- Sonya Scarlet (born 1980), singer of Italian band Theatres des Vampires
- Sonja Smets, Belgian and Dutch logician
- Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
- Sonya Tayeh, American dancer and choreographer
- Sonya Tayurskaya (born 1991), Russian singer, member of Little Big
- Sonia Theodoridou (born 1958), Greek soprano singer
- Sonja Vasić (née Petrović; born 1989), Serbian basketball player
- Sonja Vectomov (born 1979), Czech/Finnish composer/musician
- Sonja Vectomov (sculptor), Czech/Finnish sculptor
- Sonya Walger (born 1974), English actress best known as Lost's Penny Widmore
- Zonja Wallen-Lawrence (1892–1986), Swedish-American biochemist, nutritionist
- Red Sonja, archetypal fierce and beautiful barbarian
- Sonya (ソーニャ, Sōnya) 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
- 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
- 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
- Sonia, a character from the game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Sonia, pen name of the Italian journalist Ottavia Vitagliano
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