Sullivan
Masculine · “From Irish Ó Súilleabháin”
Sullivan is given to both — 15,635 boys and 1,442 girls since 1880. See Sullivan as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Sullivan comes from one of Ireland's great Munster families, the Ó Súilleabháin of Cork and Kerry, and it carries all three of its syllables comfortably — SUL-uh-vun, with the stress landing first and the rest rolling off. It has been in American records since the nineteenth century, first as a surname worn by immigrant families and later handed forward as a given name. It shortens, almost without effort, to Sully.
How old is the name Sullivan?
Sullivan first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Sullivan is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 15,000 people named Sullivan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sullivan most popular?
Sullivan peaked in 2025, reaching #314 nationally. Today it ranks #314, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Sullivan appears on these lists:
- Hometown favorites: names only one state loves
- Under the radar: quietly excellent picks
- Eight-letter names with presence
- Names with a double letter
- Irish names beyond St. Patrick's Day
- Surname names used up front
- all guides
Works in Irish families too:
Where it comes from
From Súilleabhán to Sullivan
The story of Sullivan
Sullivan is the anglicized form of Ó Súilleabháin, the surname of a sept that held land in Tipperary before the Norman arrival in the twelfth century and afterwards pushed south-west into Cork and Kerry, where the O'Sullivan Beare branch ruled the Beara peninsula. It became one of the most numerous surnames in Ireland, and Irish emigration carried it in quantity to the United States, where the O' was widely dropped. Its life as a first name is a much later chapter, part of the long American habit of moving surnames — especially Irish ones — to the front. It has been on the US books since the nineteenth century, quietly for most of that time, and has been climbing in recent years.
Meaningscholars disagree
From Irish Ó Súilleabháin, 'descendant of Súilleabhán' — a name built on súil, 'eye'
Everyone agrees on the first element: súil, the Irish word for eye. The second is where scholars part ways. The common reading takes it as dubh, 'black' or 'dark', giving 'dark-eyed one'. Others have read the name as 'one-eyed' or 'hawk-eyed'. The eye is certain; what is being said about it is not.
How the name formed
- Súilleabhán
- Ó Súilleabháin
- O'Sullivan
- Sullivan
Related forms: Ó Súilleabháin · O'Sullivan · Súilleabhán
Pronouncing Sullivan
SUL-uh-vun
Three syllables, stress on the first. The middle vowel is a light one and often disappears in fast speech, leaving something close to SUL-vun. Double L in the spelling, single V.
Nicknames for Sullivan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 20251,083 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #314reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +20.2%1,083 in 2025, from 901
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sullivan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Súilleabháin in Irish — same name
- O'Sullivan in English (Ireland) — spelling variant
- Súilleabhán in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan.
Sullivans among us
people named Sullivan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,577 born in 2025 was named Sullivan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lamar test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sullivan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lamar climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lamar's path sketches the road Sullivan is walking now.
Sullivan is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Sullivan is headed
Sullivan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Sullivan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sullivan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is already familiar to almost everyone as a surname, so it is read correctly on sight and rarely needs to be spelled out.
- Sully is a ready-made short form with a long history behind it, so the name works at full length and at speed.
- Documented in American records since the nineteenth century — long enough to have a track record, without ever having been a crowd.
- Three syllables ending in a soft -van, which sits easily against short one-syllable surnames.
- Recognized on both sides of the Atlantic, in Ireland and Britain as readily as in the US.
- It reads as a surname first. Expect forms, rosters and teachers to occasionally flip it into the last-name field, and expect the odd 'and your first name?' in reply.
- The Irish-family association is strong and specific. Some families love that; others may find it makes a claim about ancestry they had not meant to make.
- It is currently rising rather than settled, which means a child named Sullivan today will likely be the only one in the class but may not be the only one in the generation.
- Most people who hear it will shorten it to Sully within a week. If that short form does not appeal, the full name will take some defending.
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What they receive
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Sullivan
Masculine · #314 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sullivans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,000 people named Sullivan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sullivan in 2025?
- Sullivan ranks #314 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,083 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sullivan?
- About 1 in every 1,577 US boys born in 2025 was named Sullivan — 1,083 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sullivan with classmates?
- Sullivan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sullivan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Israel#315 · Eliam#313 · Mathias#312 · Blake#316 · Zyaire#317 · Cody#318 · Colson#310 · Banks#310
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sullivan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sullivan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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