Humanverse

Sumer vs Sumiko

American parents have registered 1,527 Sumers since 1880, against 618 Sumikos. Sumer is still ahead, with 7 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sumer against Sumiko, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sumer Sumiko

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 78 years in which either name was published, Sumer for 47 years and Sumiko for 31 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Sumer Sumiko
Total US births 1,527618
Most in one year 8639
Babies in 2025 7under 5
Estimated living today 1,500150
Median age today 3445
Peak year 19771927
Best rank 1,331st girls1,261st girls
Rank in 2025 11,932ndunranked
First recorded 19711912
Girls / boys 1,527 / 0618 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sumikos alive today are over 45; half the Sumers are over 34. That is 11 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sumer and Sumiko.