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ArchivesHelp with origin of last name Zofiya
My last name is Zofiya za-FY-a, you might not be able to imagine the difficulty explaining why it sounds not like it looks (i don't know!) and how do you spell that etc etc, i don't really know anything about my grandparents as they had no records as such, they were immigrants, and all i know is from pictures that they were both short and dark haired with very prominant features (i hope they weren't related, :-0) if that might help with a name origin at all! I would love to trace my family tree but don't know what country to start looking in. If any help with a meaning of the name, that's just a welcome bonus
This message was edited 4/23/2007, 5:10 AM
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Replies
I can't help myself, I just couldn't let go. So I did some more research (and after this I really stop).
Ofcourse there is the well-known city of Sofiya in Bulgaria. And also the spelling of this name is very common in Russia, especially in Ukrainia. But the pronounciation of your surname made me think of the old English pronounciation of Sophia (see my previous message). Therefore I think it is best to start from there.
I found out that there are 1.661 people in Great-Britain with the surname Sofiya, a number of them live in the county of Clackmannanshire, where Sofiya is the 36th surname.
You can find more information on the website of Sofeminine. I give you the URL:
http://surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/surname-sofiya.html
Good luck!
Marina
Ofcourse there is the well-known city of Sofiya in Bulgaria. And also the spelling of this name is very common in Russia, especially in Ukrainia. But the pronounciation of your surname made me think of the old English pronounciation of Sophia (see my previous message). Therefore I think it is best to start from there.
I found out that there are 1.661 people in Great-Britain with the surname Sofiya, a number of them live in the county of Clackmannanshire, where Sofiya is the 36th surname.
You can find more information on the website of Sofeminine. I give you the URL:
http://surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/surname-sofiya.html
Good luck!
Marina
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I have to register my doubt about the figure from the sofeminine site, Marina. The UCL surname profiler does not recognise the name, and its database contains, or should contain, every surname that had 100 or more bearers in in Britain in 1998. I'm sure an error has crept in. I'm unable to find any references to Sofiya as a surname in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter. The same goes for Zofiya, in the UK anyway.
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After some more research on the Internet I can only conclude that my first thought was right: it must be a form of Greek Sophia "wisdom", but here used as a surname.
Zofiya can also be written as Sofiya. It is stated to be an Asian first name for girls. But it is also the early english pronounciation of Sophia, like Maria = ma-RY-a, or EYE-ris instead of eer-REEZ for Iris. I also found Zofiya to be a Turkish form of Zophia and somewhere else I found the theory that it is a Russian form.
So: this doesn't help you much to find out from which country your grandparents could originate. Also because I only found Zofiya used as a first name, not as a surname.
It might be possible that the surname comes from the name of a town or city, called Zofiya (also a form of Greek Sophia). I did not find a placename with this exact spelling. So I guess it will be almost impossible to find out where you can start looking. You will have to try to fing other kinds of clues that will help you further.
I wish you a lot of "wisdom".
Marina
Zofiya can also be written as Sofiya. It is stated to be an Asian first name for girls. But it is also the early english pronounciation of Sophia, like Maria = ma-RY-a, or EYE-ris instead of eer-REEZ for Iris. I also found Zofiya to be a Turkish form of Zophia and somewhere else I found the theory that it is a Russian form.
So: this doesn't help you much to find out from which country your grandparents could originate. Also because I only found Zofiya used as a first name, not as a surname.
It might be possible that the surname comes from the name of a town or city, called Zofiya (also a form of Greek Sophia). I did not find a placename with this exact spelling. So I guess it will be almost impossible to find out where you can start looking. You will have to try to fing other kinds of clues that will help you further.
I wish you a lot of "wisdom".
Marina
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My first thought was that it could be related to the Greek fore name Sophia, meaning "wisdom". Considering the pronounciation of your last name however I started searching and found the English fore name Zavia, derived from Xavier, which itself was derived from the name of the Basque place Etxabier meaning "the new house".
I know it is a long shot, but maybe it helps you.
Marina
I know it is a long shot, but maybe it helps you.
Marina
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