Humanverse

Sun vs Sundiata

American parents have registered 1,007 Suns since 1880, against 120 Sundiatas. Sun is still ahead, with 18 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sun against Sundiata, 1880 to 2025 0 8 16 24 32 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sun Sundiata

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

Sun has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1902 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1971, when Sun had 16 and Sundiata had 16.

Side by side

  Sun Sundiata
Total US births 1,007120
Most in one year 2816
Babies in 2025 18under 5
Estimated living today 870110
Median age today 3725
Peak year 20241971
Best rank 4,890th boys2,366th boys
Rank in 2025 6,446thunranked
First recorded 19021971
Girls / boys 503 / 5040 / 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 Sundiatas are over 25. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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