Sunday
A feminine given name referring to the day of the week.
Name Census estimates that about 2,685 living Americans carry the first name Sunday. It is a predominantly female name (96.6% of registrations). The average person named Sunday today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sunday births was 2024 (241 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sunday. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Sunday with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Sunday is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 102 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
2.7K
~ 1 in 127,655 Americans
Peak year
2024
241 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,072
Tracked since 1916
Census
Sunday in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,249 people with the first name Sunday, which placed it at #5,322 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
#5,322
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,249 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sunday
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sunday is Black at 47.5%. The next largest groups are White (37.0%) and Hispanic (5.8%). 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 Sunday 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 Sunday at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.5% · 1,542
- White37.0% · 1,202
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 188
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 163
- Two or more races4.0% · 129
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 25
Gender
Gender distribution for Sunday
Sunday leans heavily female at 96.6% of total registrations, but 102 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Sunday as a male name
- Ranked #8,856 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (10 births)
Sunday as a female name
- Ranked #1,072 in 2024
- 232 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (232 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sunday on both sides of the split. Of the 3,258 people counted with this name, 1,344 were male (41.3%) and 1,914 were female (58.7%).
Popularity
Sunday: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sunday from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 756 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sunday 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 Sunday during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sundays live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Sunday, while Missouri, Minnesota, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sunday
The name Sunday is a modern English name derived from the day of the week, Sunday. Its origins can be traced back to Old English and Proto-Germanic languages. The name likely emerged as a nickname or a reference to a person born or baptized on that particular day of the week.
The word "Sunday" itself has its roots in the ancient Roman tradition of naming the days after celestial bodies. Sunday was originally known as "dies Solis" or "the day of the Sun" in Latin. This naming convention was adopted by the Germanic peoples, who referred to it as "Sunnun-dæg," meaning "Sun's day."
Historically, the name Sunday does not appear to have been widely used as a given name until relatively recent times. However, there are a few notable individuals who bore this name throughout history:
1. Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye (1942-2002), a Nigerian military officer and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the late 1990s.
2. Sunday Bada (born 1969), a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a striker for various clubs in Nigeria and Europe.
3. Sunday Oliseh (born 1974), a former Nigerian professional footballer and current manager. He played as a defensive midfielder for clubs like Ajax Amsterdam and Borussia Dortmund.
4. Sunday Ogorchukwu (born 1982), a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a striker for clubs in Nigeria, South Africa, and Israel.
5. Sunday Sando (born 1988), a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for various clubs in Nigeria and Europe.
While the name Sunday may have been used sporadically throughout history, its popularity as a given name seems to have increased in recent decades, particularly in certain cultural contexts. However, due to its unique and unconventional nature, it remains a relatively uncommon name compared to more traditional names.
People
Sunday + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sunday 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
Sunday: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sunday?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,685 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sunday 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 127,655 US residents.
Is Sunday a common name?
We classify Sunday as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,022 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sunday most popular?
The single biggest year for Sunday was 2024, when 241 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sunday is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sunday in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,249 people with the name Sunday, or 1.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,322 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 Sunday 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 Sunday?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sunday on both sides of the split. Of the 3,258 people counted with this name, 1,344 were male (41.3%) and 1,914 were female (58.7%). 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 Sunday?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sunday is Black at 47.5%. The next largest groups are White (37.0%) and Hispanic (5.8%). 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 Sunday most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Sunday in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.5% (1,542 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 Sunday in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sunday a female name?
Yes, 96.6% of people registered as Sunday 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 Sunday still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sunday 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 Sunday 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 Sunday?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.