Sun vs Sunday
American parents have registered 3,317 Sundays since 1880, against 1,007 Suns. Sunday is still ahead, with 290 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Sun Sunday
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 101 years in which either name was published, Sunday for 76 years and Sun for 25 years. The lead changed hands 17 times.
- 1921–1929 Sun ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1938–1979 Sunday ahead
- 1983–1991 Sun ahead
- 1995–1998 Sunday ahead
- 1999–2001 Sun ahead
- 2005–2025 Sunday ahead
11 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Sun | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,007 | 3,317 |
| Most in one year | 28 | 290 |
| Babies in 2025 | 18 | 290 |
| Estimated living today | 870 | 3,100 |
| Median age today | 37 | 19 |
| Peak year | 2024 | 2025 |
| Best rank | 4,890th boys | 946th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 6,446th | 946th |
| First recorded | 1902 | 1916 |
| Girls / boys | 503 / 504 | 3,197 / 120 |
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 Suns alive today are over 37; half the Sundays are over 19. That is 18 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Sun Kansas (72.2×), California (1.9×)
- Sunday California (3.0×), Florida (2.3×), Texas (2.2×)
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: Sun and Sunday.