Sonu

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Sŏn-U in KR South Korea and Sanu in BD Bangladesh.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Sonu is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name139K records spelled Sonu4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Pakistan

  Also written Sonū, Sŏnu, Sǒnu

• Spanish given name6.6K records spelled Sonu20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Spain, United States, United Kingdom

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian

  Also written Soñu, Sóñú, Sôñü, Sóñû, Soñů

• French given name1.2K records spelled Sonu4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, India, Spain, United States

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Sőnū, Sôñû

• Hebrew given name400 records spelled Sonu3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Israel, United States

  Also written סונו, Sóñù

33 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Sonu is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In vo, predicative singular of son

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Turkish, accusative singular of son

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In non, accusative plural of sonr

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Esperanto, imperative of soni

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In scn, sound

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 103 years between 1899–2017. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Sonu Waliab. 1964INIndian actress and model
• Sonu Nigamb. 1973INIndian singer
• Sonu Anand Sharmab. 1975INbadminton player
• Sonu Kakkarb. 1979INIndian playback singer and songwriter
• Sonus030b. 1989DEnot in their usual nameGerman-Indian musician, songwriter, record producer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 227 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Sonu?

We estimate roughly 57 thousand people bear Sonu (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Sonu have the most bearers?

Sonu is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled sonu.

How common is Sonu compared with other names?

In India, Sonu is the 87th most common given name of 4,777,337 given names recorded there.

Is Sonu a male or female name?

Sonu is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Sonu mean?

Recorded meaning: Two-character Korean surname; Chinese equivalent Xianyu.