Entry № 9926 · Persian origin

Soraya Soraya — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ soh-RYE-ah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Persian
Meaning
"The Pleiades"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Ancient

A name that means "the pleiades".

Soraya (ثریا / ثرية) is the Persian and Arabic name for the Pleiades — the small star cluster known to Western astronomy as the Seven Sisters. The name has been a feminine given name in Persian-speaking countries for at least a thousand years, often given to daughters with a wish for them to shine.

Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari was the second wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. The name has carried that mix of glamour and melancholy ever since.

A constellation in three syllables.

The name in its native script.

ثریا
Transliteration
Suraiyā
Pronunciation
/ soˈɾaɪ.jɑ /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Soraya stands.

Soraya does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Sorayas before her.

Real people
Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari
Second wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, last Shah of Iran. Author and actress in later life.
1932 – 2001
In fiction
Soraya
Wife of Amir in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.
2003 novel

Names connected to Soraya.

The number behind Soraya.

7

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Soraya reduce to 7, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.