Recorded 1900–2025 · United States
Sunny was most popular in 2024, when 1,057 American babies were given the name — ranking #637 that year. In 2025 it ranked #655, with 998 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 17,697 people named Sunny.
Sunny first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1900, which makes it about 125 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 116 of the 126 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 17,697 American births named Sunny between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 16,449 are estimated to be alive today.
998 American babies were named Sunny in 2025, ranking #655 that year.
Sunny is rising. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 862 births a year, against 258 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of +235% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Sunny is a unisex name — 74.5% of the 17,697 Americans given it were girls and 25.5% were boys. It changed hands: since 1997 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that. In births since 2016 it is 79% girls and 21% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 16,449 Americans named Sunny are alive today — 93% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 19 years old, and half are between 5 and 41. That is a wide band, the mark of a name in steady use across generations rather than a passing fashion.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Sunny on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org