Sony
From the Japanese son'i, meaning "having become stubborn".
Name Census estimates that about 313 living Americans carry the first name Sony. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Sony today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sony births was 1988 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sony. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
313
~ 1 in 1,095,062 Americans
Peak year
1988
21 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2021 SSA rank
#11,935
Tracked since 1968
Census
Sony in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,705 people with the first name Sony, which placed it at #8,499 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,499
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,705 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
50.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sony
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sony is Asian/Pacific Islander at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Black (26.0%) and Hispanic (13.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Sony described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Sony at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander50.6% · 862
- Black or African American26.0% · 443
- Hispanic or Latino13.5% · 231
- White7.5% · 128
- Two or more races2.0% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Sony
Sony leans heavily male at 88.0% of total registrations, but 39 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Sony as a male name
- Ranked #11,935 in 2021
- 6 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1988 (16 births)
Sony as a female name
- Ranked #13,604 in 1988
- 5 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1985 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sony on both sides of the split. Of the 1,697 people counted with this name, 1,094 were male (64.5%) and 603 were female (35.5%).
Popularity
Sony: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sony from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 110 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sony by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Sony during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sonys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sony
The name Sony is a modern name that does not have a deep historical origin or etymology. It is not derived from any ancient languages or cultural traditions. Instead, it is a name created relatively recently by the Japanese electronics company Sony Corporation.
The Sony Corporation was founded in 1946 in Tokyo, Japan, by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita. The name "Sony" is a combination of two words: the Latin word "sonus" meaning sound, and the English slang term "sonny" which was a popular way to address a young man or boy at the time. The name was chosen to reflect the company's initial focus on producing audio equipment.
While the name Sony itself does not have a long history, it has become closely associated with the company's success and innovation in the electronics industry. Sony has been a pioneer in various fields, including transistor radios, color televisions, home video players, and portable music players.
Since its inception, the Sony name has become globally recognized and synonymous with quality electronic products. However, there are no recorded instances of the name Sony being used as a given name for individuals prior to the establishment of the company.
It is worth noting that while the name Sony does not have a rich historical background, it has become a part of modern cultural history due to the company's significant impact on consumer electronics and popular culture. As a result, the name Sony is now recognized worldwide, even if it lacks the traditional linguistic or cultural roots that many other given names possess.
People
Sony + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sony as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sony: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sony?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 313 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sony going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,095,062 US residents.
Is Sony a common name?
We classify Sony as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 326 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sony most popular?
The single biggest year for Sony was 1988, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sony is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sony in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,705 people with the name Sony, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,499 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Sony in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Sony?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sony on both sides of the split. Of the 1,697 people counted with this name, 1,094 were male (64.5%) and 603 were female (35.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Sony?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sony is Asian/Pacific Islander at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Black (26.0%) and Hispanic (13.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Sony most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Sony in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.6% (862 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Sony in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sony a male name?
Yes, 88.0% of people registered as Sony in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Sony still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sony in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Sony can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Sony as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Sony on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.