Humanverse

Sophia vs Sophronia

American parents have registered 439,619 Sophias since 1880, against 1,530 Sophronias. Sophia is still ahead, with 12,572 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sophia against Sophronia, 1880 to 2025 0 6k 12k 18k 24k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sophia Sophronia

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Sophia has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1942, when Sophia had 81 and Sophronia had 18.

Side by side

  Sophia Sophronia
Total US births 439,6191,530
Most in one year 22,35433
Babies in 2025 12,5726
Estimated living today 418,000420
Median age today 1363
Peak year 20121900
Best rank 1st girls611th girls
Rank in 2025 5th13,208th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 439,108 / 5111,530 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sophronias alive today are over 63; half the Sophias are over 13. That is 50 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sophia and Sophronia.