Sophia

See also: sophia

English

Alternative forms

• Sofia, Sofya, Sofiya, Sofija

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsəʊfi.ə/, /səˈfaɪə/, /səˈfiːə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /soʊˈfi.ə/
• Rhymes: -əʊfiə
• Hyphenation: So‧phia

Etymology 1

Chiefly from Latin Sophia, from Ancient Greek Σοφία (Sophía), from σοφία (sophía, “wisdom”), especially in reference to holy or divine wisdom under the influence of Biblical Hebrew חוכמה (khokhmá), to the early martyr St. Sophia, and to many figures of European royalty and nobility. Also used as a calque for the many cognate forms, such as Italian Sofia, Russian Софи́я (Sofíja), Polish Zofia, etc.

Proper noun

Sophia

1. A female given name from Ancient Greek.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     To say the truth, Sophia, when very young, discerned that Tom, though an idle, thoughtless, rattling rascal, was nobody's enemy but his own […]

   • 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield:

     I intended to call her after Aunt Grizel, but my wife who, during pregnancy, had been reading romances, insisted upon her being called Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and now I was determined that Grizel should be her name; but a rich relation taking a fancy to stand godmother, the girl was, by her directions, called Sophia, so that we had two romantic names in the family, but I solemnly protest I had no hand in it.

   • 1998 Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet, A.A.Knopf Inc., page 2:

     Gram said, "Sophia. Would that be an Italian name?" "It came from a great-aunt," Sophia told her, turning briefly in her direction. "Was your great-aunt Italian?" "No, Scottish." "Oh." I knew what Gram was aiming at here. She wanted to find out whether Sophia was Catholic. She poked her headful of pink curlers forward for a moment and looked at me. "Presbyterian, " I told her. "Oh." She sat back again, Oh, well, you could see her thinking, her own daughter had married Episcopal and the sky hadn't fallen in. "It's a pretty name, anyhow," she told Sophia. "Thank you." "I like names that end with an a, don't you? […]

2. (Gnosticism) An aeon (a form of divine being) in the Gnostic tradition.
3. A town in West Virginia, United States; named for early resident Sophia McGinnis.

Related terms

• Sonia, Sonya, Sophie

Translations

female given name

• Arabic: صُوفِيَا f (ṣūfiyā)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 索菲婭／索菲娅 (Suǒfēiyà)

• Czech: Žofie (cs) f
• Danish: Sofie f, Sofia f
• Esperanto: Sofia (eo)
• Estonian: Viia, Viiu
• Finnish: Sofia (fi)
• French: Sophie (fr)
• Galician: Sofía (gl) f
• Georgian: სოფიო (sopio)
• German: Sophia (de)
• Greek: Σοφία (el) f (Sofía)
• Hawaiian: Kopaea
• Hebrew: סופיה f
• Hungarian: Zsófia (hu)
• Ingrian: Sofja
• Inuktitut: ᓱᐱᐊ (sopia)
• Italian: Sofia (it)
• Latvian: Sofija f
• Macedonian: Софија (mk) f (Sofija)
• Northern Sami: Sofe
• Norwegian: Sofia (no) f, Sofie (no) f
• Persian: سوفیا (sofiyâ)
• Polish: Zofia (pl) f
• Portuguese: Sofia (pt) f
• Romagnol: Sfìa
• Russian: Софи́я (ru) (Sofíja)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Софија f

  Roman: Sofija (sh) f

• Skolt Sami: Såff
• Spanish: Sofía (es)
• Swahili: Sofia
• Swedish: Sofia (sv)
• Turkish: Sofya (tr)
• Ukrainian: Со́фія (uk) (Sófija)
• Welsh: Soffia
• Yiddish: סאָפֿיאַ (sofya)

Etymology 2

See Sophy.

Noun

Sophia (plural Sophias)

2. (historical) Archaic spelling of Safawi.
   • 1578 May 16, “[letter]”, in Arthur John Butler, editor, Calendar of state papers, Foreign series, of the reign of Elizabeth, 1578–1579, London: Public Record Office, published 1903, →OCLC:

     It is written from Constantinople that the 'Sophia' of Persia is dead and that his brother had taken the government.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Sophia.

References

• “Sophy, n.1”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

• hopias, poisha

Cebuano

Etymology

From English Sophia, from Ancient Greek σοφία (sophía, “wisdom”).

Proper noun

Sophia

1. a female given name from English [in turn from Ancient Greek]

Danish

Proper noun

Sophia

1. a female given name, variant of Sofie

German

Alternative forms

• Sofia f

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [zoˈfiːa]

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: So‧phi‧a

Proper noun

Sophia f (proper noun, genitive Sophias, plural Sophias or Sophien)

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Sophia

Declension

Declension of Sophia [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Sophia	die	Sophias, Sophien
genitive	einer	der	Sophias	der	Sophias, Sophien
dative	einer	der	Sophia	den	Sophias, Sophien
accusative	eine	die	Sophia	die	Sophias, Sophien

Related terms

• Sofie, Sophie, Sonja

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Sophia c (genitive Sophias)

1. a female given name, a less common spelling of Sofia

Tagalog

Alternative forms

• Sofia — from Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English Sophia, from Ancient Greek σοφία (sophía, “wisdom”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /soˈfia/ [soˈfiː.ɐ]
  • IPA^(key): (more native-sounding) /soˈpia/ [soˈpiː.ɐ]
• Rhymes: -ia
• Syllabification: So‧phi‧a

Proper noun

Sophia (Baybayin spelling ᜐᜓᜉᜒᜌ)

1. a female given name from English [in turn from Ancient Greek]