Sofia

Sofia is Sophia with the edges sanded off — same Greek root, sophia, meaning wisdom, but rendered in the cleaner Italian and Spanish spelling that has always traveled better across borders. Sofia Loren brought it Mediterranean glamour; Sofia Coppola brought it a more modern, quieter chic. In the American charts, it sits just behind its sister spelling, a little more streamlined, a little more international. Two syllables, the f softer than the ph, vowels that open like shutters. It belongs on a passport, on a film credit, on a small girl in a sundress. Wisdom, lightly worn. The kind of elegance that doesn't announce itself.