... Perhaps we ought to consider Sophia (Σοφία) as one of the words most closely connected with divine attributes, since its use as a name was owing to the dedication of that most gorgeous of Christian temples by which Justinian declared that he had surpassed Solomon.  It was called, and it has borne the title through its four hundred years of bondage to Islam, Sta. Sophia (the holy wisdom of God), that figurative wisdom whom Christians considered the Book of Proverbs to point out as the Word of God.  Moreover, the words of the 'Preacher,' in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, "Wisdom (Σοφία) is the mother of fair Love and Hope and holy Fear," suggested an allegory of a holy woman with three daughters so called, and thus, in compliment, no doubt, to the glorious newly-built church, the niece of Justinian's empress, afterwards wife to his nephew and successor, was called Sophia, a name which thenceforward became the fashion among the purple-born daughters, and spread from the them among the Slavonian nations, who regarded Constantinople as the centre of civilization.  Through these Slavonians Sophia spread to Germany. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884)