Meanings
Sofia1
alternative Sofya
- A female given name, variant of Sophia.
Every year in California thousands of parents choose names such as José, Andrés and Sofía for their children, often honoring the memory of a deceased grandmother, aunt or sibling. On the state-issued birth certificates, though, those names will be spelled incorrectly.
2015 April 11, Tovin Lapan, “California birth certificates and accents: O’Connor alright, Ramón and José is not”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2025 - The capital city of Bulgaria.
- metonymicallyThe Bulgarian government.
Sofia2
- A river in northwestern Madagascar.
- A region of Madagascar around the river.
SOFIA3
- abbreviationacronymspace; telescope; US space program; space; telescope; US space programAcronym of Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a telescope atop a Boeing 747SP aircraft with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters at altitudes up to 13.7 kilometers.
- abbreviationacronymmedicineAcronym of Surround Optical Fiber Immunoassay.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Sofia · proper noun
- Ottoman Turkishصوفیه
- Medieval GreekΝαός Ἁγίας Σοφίας“Church of Holy Wisdom”
- BulgarianСо́фия
- Ancient GreekΣοφία“wisdom, especially divine wisdom”
- EnglishSofia
Variant spelling of Sophia and from various other languages' own adaptations of Ancient Greek Σοφία (Sophía, “wisdom, especially divine wisdom”). Sometimes borrowed into English as an anglicization of an accented or closely related form, as with Spanish Sofía, Welsh Soffia, and Hungarian Zsófia. As the capital of Bulgaria, via nonstandard, though now official, romanization of Bulgarian Со́фия (Sófija), from църква „Света София“ (cărkva „Sveta Sofija“), from Medieval Greek Ναός Ἁγίας Σοφίας (Naós Hagías Sophías, “Church of Holy Wisdom”), the city's prominent 6th-century Byzantine Greek church, first attested being used as the name for the city in the 14th century and reinforced under Ottoman rule as Ottoman Turkish صوفیه (Sofya). Compare the name of the Hagia Sophia.
More words from Ancient Greek, Bulgarian, Medieval Greek
Full word history & related roots →Sofia · proper noun
- MalagasySofia
- EnglishSofia
From Malagasy Sofia of uncertain origin. The region is named for the river.
More words from Malagasy
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Ancient Greek Σαρδική, Σερδική
- Σαρδική (Sardikḗ)Bulgarian capital
- Σερδική (Serdikḗ)Bulgarian capital
Arabic صُوفْيَا
- صُوفْيَا (ṣūfyā)Bulgarian capital
Bengali সোফিয়া
- সোফিয়া (śōphiẏa)Bulgarian capital
Bulgarian Со́фия
- Со́фия (Sófija)Bulgarian capital
Catalan Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Chinese Cantonese 索非亞 /索非亚
- 索非亞 /索非亚 (sok³ fei¹ aa³)Bulgarian capital
Chinese Mandarin 索非亞 /索非亚
- 索非亞 /索非亚 (Suǒfēiyà)Bulgarian capital
Czech Sofie
- SofieBulgarian capital
Danish Sofija, Sofia
- SofijaBulgarian capital
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Dutch Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Esperanto Sofio
- SofioBulgarian capital
Estonian Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Finnish Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
French Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
German Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Greek Σόφια
- Σόφια (Sófia)Bulgarian capital
Hebrew סוֹפִיָה
- סוֹפִיָה (sófiya)Bulgarian capital
Hindi सोफ़िया
- सोफ़िया (sofiyā)Bulgarian capital
Hungarian Szófia
- SzófiaBulgarian capital
Icelandic Sófía
- SófíaBulgarian capital
Indonesian Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Irish Sóifia
- SóifiaBulgarian capital
Italian Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Japanese ソフィア
- ソフィア (Sofia)Bulgarian capital
Korean 소피아, 쏘피아
- 소피아 (Sopia)Bulgarian capital
- 쏘피아 (Ssopia)Bulgarian capital
Latin Serdica
- SerdicaBulgarian capital
Latvian Sofija
- SofijaBulgarian capital
Lithuanian Sofija
- SofijaBulgarian capital
Malay Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Norwegian Bokmål Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Persian صوفیا, صوفیه
- صوفیا (Sofiyâ)Bulgarian capital
- صوفیه (Sofiye)Bulgarian capital
Polish Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Portuguese Sófia
- SófiaBulgarian capital
Romanian Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Russian Софи́я
- Софи́я (Sofíja)Bulgarian capital
Slovak Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Spanish Sofía
- SofíaBulgarian capital
Swedish Sofia
- SofiaBulgarian capital
Tagalog Sopiya
- SopiyaBulgarian capital
Tamil ஸோபியா
- ஸோபியா (sōpiyā)Bulgarian capital
Thai โซเฟีย
- โซเฟีย (soo-fiia)Bulgarian capital
Turkish Sofya
- SofyaBulgarian capital
Ukrainian Софі́я
- Софі́я (Sofíja)Bulgarian capital
Urdu صوفیہ
- صوفیہ (sofiyā)Bulgarian capital
Vietnamese Sách Phi Á, Xô-phi-a
- Sách Phi ÁBulgarian capital
- Xô-phi-aBulgarian capital
Yiddish סאָפֿיע
- סאָפֿיע (sofye)Bulgarian capital
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with Sofia
All rhymes →Cite this entry
Sofia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sofia
“Sofia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sofia. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Sofia,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sofia.
Source: Sofia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.