Sun
The source of warmth and light in the solar system.
Name Census estimates that about 835 living Americans carry the first name Sun. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 50.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Sun today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sun births was 2022 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sun. 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
835
~ 1 in 410,484 Americans
Peak year
2022
28 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,199
Tracked since 1902
Census
Sun in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,185 people with the first name Sun, which placed it at #2,604 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
#2,604
National first-name rank
People counted
9.2K
9,185 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
94.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sun
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sun is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.6%) and Hispanic (1.2%). 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 Sun 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 Sun at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander94.0% · 8,632
- White2.6% · 241
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 106
- Two or more races1.1% · 103
- Black or African American1.0% · 91
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Sun
Sun is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 988 total registrations, 490 (49.6%) were male and 498 (50.4%) were female.
Sun as a male name
- Ranked #5,199 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (19 births)
Sun as a female name
- Ranked #13,298 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1971 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sun on both sides of the split. Of the 9,188 people counted with this name, 1,902 were male (20.7%) and 7,286 were female (79.3%).
Popularity
Sun: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sun from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 205 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Sun remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sun 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 Sun during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Suns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Kansas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Sun, while New York, California, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sun
The name Sun is believed to have originated from the Chinese language, where it is pronounced as "Shun" or "Xun". It is derived from the Chinese word for the celestial body that is the center of our solar system and the source of light and warmth for our planet.
The name Sun has been used in Chinese culture for centuries, with references to it appearing in ancient texts and historical records. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the Shijing, also known as the Classic of Poetry, which is a collection of ancient Chinese poems dating back to the 11th century BC.
In Chinese mythology, the Sun is often personified as a deity or a powerful entity. For instance, in the Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, written by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC, there is a story about a mythical figure named Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, who is a powerful and mischievous character in the classic novel "Journey to the West".
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Sun. One of the most famous was Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese military strategist and philosopher who lived around the 5th century BC and authored the influential work "The Art of War".
Another prominent figure with the name Sun was Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), a revered Chinese revolutionary and political leader who played a pivotal role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.
In ancient Japan, there was a legendary prince named Sun Goddess Amaterasu, who was the central figure in the Shinto religion and was revered as the ancestor of the Japanese imperial family.
In Korea, the name Sun has been used for both males and females, with one notable example being Sun Mu (682-737), a renowned military general and statesman during the Silla dynasty.
The name Sun has also been used in other cultures and languages, such as in the Indian subcontinent, where it is sometimes spelled as "Sunn" or "Sonn". However, its origins and historical significance are most strongly rooted in Chinese culture and tradition.
People
Sun + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sun 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
Sun: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sun?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 835 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sun 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 410,484 US residents.
Is Sun a common name?
We classify Sun as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 988 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sun most popular?
The single biggest year for Sun was 2022, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sun is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sun in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,185 people with the name Sun, or 3.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,604 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 Sun 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 Sun?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sun on both sides of the split. Of the 9,188 people counted with this name, 1,902 were male (20.7%) and 7,286 were female (79.3%). 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 Sun?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sun is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.6%) and Hispanic (1.2%). 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 Sun most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Sun in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.0% (8,632 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 Sun in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sun a female name?
Yes, 50.4% of people registered as Sun in the SSA data are female. 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 Sun still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sun 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 Sun 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 share the name Sun?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.