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Soraya

#868 in 2025Girls' name

Brilliant gem; Pleiades

Soraya has been given to 6,811 babies in the U.S. since 1955. In 2025 it ranked #868 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 313 recorded.

Babies named Soraya, 2025

1 in 10,600

Soraya over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Soraya: meaning, origin, and history

Brilliant gem; Pleiades

Persian

What Soraya means

Soraya means “brilliant gem; Pleiades”, associated with surayyā.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Borrowed from Iranian Persian ثریا (sorayyâ), from Classical Persian ثریا (surayyā, “brilliant gem; Pleiades”), ultimately from Arabic ثُرَيَّا (ṯurayyā).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Soraya (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Soraya is used in English, French and Spanish. Its origins include Persian.

Soraya comes through fa-ira ثریا, fa-cls ثریا and Arabic ثُرَيَّا.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Soraya is pronounced /soˈɾaʝa/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,811 girls were recorded with the name Soraya between 1955 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 313 in 2025; its best national rank was #868 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,186 in 2020 to #868 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,233 in 2015 to #868 in 2025.

How common is Soraya?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 10,600
313 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 5,130
0.02% of girls
Rank, 2025
#868
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
7,343 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Soraya sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5005%

Put another way: gather 7,343 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Soraya. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sorayas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Soraya was born before 2010 — so the typical Soraya is around 15 today.

Median birth year
2010
About 15 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
28.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
72.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
6,811
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 28.8% of all recorded uses (1,963).

Is Soraya rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+43
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+318
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+365
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.56×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (313)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#868
2025

Spellings of Soraya

Soraya is not the most common spelling — Sonya is, with 53.2% against Soraya's 5.5%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Soraya is used

Across 2016–2025, Soraya was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 4,000 girls, against 1 in 6,751 across all states with data. It was least common in South Carolina (1 in 33,333).

325 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 4,000
  2. 2Florida1 in 4,167
  3. 3Georgia1 in 4,762
  4. 4Massachusetts1 in 5,000
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 5,263
  6. 6California1 in 5,556
  7. 7Virginia1 in 5,556
  8. 8Arizona1 in 5,882

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Soraya around the world

Where Soraya ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #526
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1976–2018
    #809
    in 2018
  • Ireland
    2009–2021
    #586
    in 2021
  • France
    1954–2025
    #465
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #913
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1956–2013
    #403
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Soraya

People whose public names include Soraya, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Soraya in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Soraya. Linked forms have their own page here.

SarayaSoraia

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Soraya by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#868
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 318
Best rank ever
#868
2025
Peak year
2025
313 that year
First recorded
1955
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
6,811
Count in 2025
313

Names similar to Soraya

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MalayaJanayaSamayaJamayaSumayaTanayaArayaAlayaJalayaKamayaSanayaInaayaZendayaSarayaInayaSoriahKalayaTalayaShanayaTayaNayaLanayaSoraChaya

Names with a curve like Soraya

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Soraya, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MalkaLeenaLiannaMelaniValeryKaiMariellaKaliaSamiraRivkaTreasureZainab

Sibling names for Soraya

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Soraya

Top names of 2025, Soraya's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2025Girls' names starting with SPersian Girl Names