Sumner
Masculine · “A summoner”
Sumner is given to both — 2,444 boys and 218 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Sumner is a job: the summoner was the officer who called people to appear before an ecclesiastical court, and Chaucer gives one a tale in the Canterbury Tales, where he is corrupt. The surname became an American first name in the nineteenth century, and its peak is 1883.
How old is the name Sumner?
Sumner was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Sumner alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 1,000 people named Sumner are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sumner most popular?
Sumner peaked in 1883, reaching #527 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 4,872 places below that high. See the whole 1883 chart.
Where it comes from
From somonour to Sumner
The story of Sumner
The occupational surname is English and old, and it traveled to New England early. Its American prominence belongs to Charles Sumner, senator from Massachusetts and one of the fiercest opponents of slavery in Congress, who in 1856 was beaten nearly to death at his desk by a South Carolina congressman after a speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Act; he took three years to recover and returned to lead Radical Reconstruction. The given name's peak in 1883 sits a decade after his death, which is the usual delay for a name commemorating a public figure, and it declined steadily through the twentieth century.
Meaning
A summoner, a court officer
From Middle English somonour, a summoner — the apparitor of a church court, whose work was to serve citations. The word comes through Anglo-French from Latin summonere, to call. The reading is settled and the occupation is well documented; Chaucer's Summoner is one of the most vividly unpleasant of the pilgrims.
How the name formed
- somonour
- Sumner
Related forms: Somonour
Pronouncing Sumner
SUM-ner
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is said exactly like the word summer with an n added, which is the main source of mishearing.
Nicknames for Sumner
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 192065 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #527reached in 1883
- Change vs 2022
- +88.9%17 in 2025, from 9
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.
Sumner in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Somonour in Anglo-French — related form
Sumners among us
people named Sumner are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Sumner
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Sumner sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Sumner beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sumner in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and connects to a documented medieval occupation.
- It has a genuinely admirable American namesake in Charles Sumner.
- Everyone can say it on first sight.
- It is regularly misheard as Summer, which is a girls' name.
- It reads as a surname and will be assumed to be one on forms.
- Chaucer's Summoner is a memorable and thoroughly corrupt character.
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Sumner
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sumners are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Sumner are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sumner in 2025?
- Sumner ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sumner?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Sumner — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sumner with classmates?
- Sumner will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sumner
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sumner? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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