Soha
A feminine name derived from Arabic, meaning "bright, splendid star".
Name Census estimates that about 819 living Americans carry the first name Soha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Soha today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Soha births was 2008 (54 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Soha. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Soha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
819
~ 1 in 418,503 Americans
Peak year
2008
54 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,343
Tracked since 1982
Census
Soha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,180 people with the first name Soha, which placed it at #11,027 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#11,027
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,180 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
55.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Soha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Soha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 55.9%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Soha described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Soha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander55.9% · 660
- White37.5% · 443
- Two or more races4.0% · 47
- Black or African American1.9% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Popularity
Soha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Soha from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 322 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Soha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Soha by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Soha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sohas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Soha, while Illinois, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 54 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Soha
The name Soha has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "sahwa," which means "awakening" or "consciousness." The name is believed to have been in use since the early medieval period in the Middle East and North Africa.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Soha can be found in ancient Arabic poetry and literature. It is believed that the name was used by several poets and writers during the Golden Age of Islamic culture, which spanned the 8th to 13th centuries.
In the historical record, one of the earliest known individuals with the name Soha was Soha bint Al-Husayn, a female poet who lived in the 8th century during the Abbasid Caliphate. She was renowned for her eloquence and her contributions to Arabic literature.
Another notable figure with the name Soha was Soha Al-Sufi, a renowned Sufi mystic and scholar who lived in the 10th century. She is celebrated for her spiritual teachings and her influence on the development of Sufism, a mystical tradition within Islam.
In the 12th century, there was Soha Al-Andalusi, a renowned physician and philosopher from the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal). She made significant contributions to the fields of medicine and natural sciences during the Islamic Golden Age.
Moving forward in time, one of the most famous individuals with the name Soha was Soha Bey, an Egyptian ruler and military commander who lived in the 18th century. He played a crucial role in the struggle against the French invasion of Egypt and is revered as a national hero in Egyptian history.
Another noteworthy figure was Soha Al-Faisaly, a Syrian poet and activist who lived in the 20th century. She was a prominent voice in the Arab literary world and a leading advocate for women's rights and social reform in the Middle East.
While the name Soha has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, it has been adopted and used in various parts of the world, particularly in regions with significant Arab or Muslim populations.
People
Soha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Soha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Soha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Soha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 819 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Soha going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 418,503 US residents.
Is Soha a common name?
We classify Soha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 829 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Soha most popular?
The single biggest year for Soha was 2008, when 54 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Soha is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Soha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,180 people with the name Soha, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,027 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Soha in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Soha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Soha leans strongly female. 1,160 people counted with this name were female (98.4%), compared with 19 male bearers (1.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Soha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Soha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 55.9%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Soha most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Soha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.9% (660 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Soha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Soha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Soha in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Soha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Soha in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Soha can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Soha?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Soha, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.