Humanverse

Sundiata vs Sunnie

American parents have registered 2,754 Sunnies since 1880, against 120 Sundiatas. Sunnie is still ahead, with 230 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sundiata against Sunnie, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sundiata Sunnie

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

Sunnie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1971, when Sundiata had 16 and Sunnie had 19.

Side by side

  Sundiata Sunnie
Total US births 1202,754
Most in one year 16230
Babies in 2025 under 5230
Estimated living today 1102,600
Median age today 2513
Peak year 19712024
Best rank 2,366th boys1,105th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,092nd
First recorded 19711915
Girls / boys 0 / 1202,692 / 62

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 Sundiatas alive today are over 25; half the Sunnies are over 13. 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: Sundiata and Sunnie.