Sophia versus Anna

[Littenpojke]

Dh is for Sophia, I prefer Anna. Dh is Scandinavian and says that Anna is just too common back home.

Is Anna or Sophia more common in your experience (in the UK)?

Which name (Anna or Sophia) do you think sounds nicest in the English language? We don't like Sophie though. Please help!!

[Dillydollydaydream]

I think Sofia/Sophia is used more often.
Ana Sophia is lovely :)

[Littenpojke]

Thanks dilly. Which name does sound nicer in the English language in your opinion?

[HolidayCriminal]

They both sound lovely, I reckon. Anna is uncommon IME for under 10s, Sophia even more unusual but Sophie is extremely common for age 8+ AND a lot of people will convert Sophia to Sophie.

I like them both a lot but would probably choose Anna.

[Littenpojke]

The spelling Sofia is more common in Scandinavia but would people in England find this spelling weird or pretentious?

[MagratGarlik]

Don't give a well known name with an unusual (but valid) spelling. I speak from experience because I have a well known name, but a less common spelling. I have gone my whole life with people institing on spelling my name incorrectly, even when I spell it out for them. This even extended to HMRC sending me my national insurance number card with my name spelt wrongly -it still causes hassle as I keep on having to prove that no, I have not changed my name by deed-poll etc etc.

[Kantha]

Anna every time

[wigglesrock]

I have 3 daughters, the oldest is Sofia & the youngest is Anna . So I can't help you choose, but they're both lovely!

[Littenpojke]

Magrat, I totally see your point and agree. Thanks for your thoughts!

Wiggle, how would you characterise the names (not sure if that's the right word) but is Anna sort of fun and clever and sof/phia sophisticated (sorry) and more serious?

[wigglesrock]

Well my Sofia is 8, so she thinks she's terribly sophisticated . She's kind, generous, goofy, very funny & a tad sensitive. She's like most 8 year olds. Anna is 3 - she's very lively, one might say spirited!

It's strange from the minute I was pregnant with dd1, she was always going to be Sofia, I was so set on the name. I had dd2, picked her name really quickly as well. With dd3 I just thought Anna was the loveliest name ever but yet I'd never even considered it for the other 2.

[Littenpojke]

That sounds lovely wiggles .

[BananaHammocks]

Anna - Currently number 68 and dropping: names.darkgreener.com/#anna

Sophia - Currently number 15 and shooting up: names.darkgreener.com/#sophia

Sofia - Currently number 43 and shooting up: names.darkgreener.com/#sofia

I'd go for Anna!

[Sharaluck]

Anna

[CountessOfRule]

Anna is just lovely.

Nothing wrong with Sophie/Sophia, there's just a lot of them, and they get called Soph.

Anna suits all ages, characters, colouring, etc. Love it.

[Snowflakepie]

Anna. That was our choice for DC2 but he was a DS. Still love it.

DH chose Sophia as our standby name for DD in case our preferred name seemed wrong. I never warmed to it, though it is lovely. Very glad now that we didn't use it as I know 3 Sophia/ Sofia/Sophie girls of the same age.

You can also pronounce it so-fy-aaa which might add to the mix? This is how we would have said it which I don't think is the more conventional English way. More levels of confusion, I don't think I would have been happy with that.

Anna Sophia is really nice though, I would go for that. Good luck!

[Pannacotta]

How about Ann-Sofie?

[adaloveslace]

I prefer Anna. I know a beautiful teenage Annaliese who mostly goes by Anna and loves her name and the options it gives (Annie, Liese among others).

Sophia is lovely too, especially when shortened to Fia (which means 'deer' in Irish).

[Hairytoekerr01]

I come into contact with a lot of Easter Europeans in my job and find like most migrant groups the anglicized their children's names quite quickly. Anna is popular especially with polish and Latvian kids, then recently I have seen kids call Sophia (anglicized) from Sofia mainly from the Romanian community. Some lovely names and personally think it a shame they think they need to change the spelling to make it more acceptable. I wonder (Based on nothing but my observations in London) if this is why these names are having a popularity boost?., anyone else seen anything similar?

[Littenpojke]

Maybe it will be Anna Sophia then. Or sophia anna? . Anna is still ny prefer ace but I wonder if sophia has more 'weight' ad longer and more vowels...
Is an anna more gentle/shy and a sophia more 'out there'. Apologies for sounding so generalising I am just trying to get the right feel for the names.

[Littenpojke]

• Anna is still my preferred name..
  Sorry for typos

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Anna definitely, it's a beautiful name and not nearly as popular
If you are thinking of Sophia, I don't think anyone here could have a problem with Sofia Also wanted to say, there is a popular children's tv character on the Disney channel called Sofia, which may be increasing its popularity!

[CountessOfRule]

I think Sophie is wet not as strong as Anna which is more assertive and elegant all at once.

[Questionsquestionsquestions123]

I'd choose Anna, pretty name.

[Harrin]

Anna is my favourite girls name. Closely followed by Sophie so I'd go for Anna, it's lovely and underused imo

[Limafresco]

Anna is less common but maybe it's a bit dull?

[dirtywindows]

My youngest is Sophia and I was surprised to discover how many of them there are. I work in a school now- there are lots of them. Still lovely though. We call ours Fifi at home.