Sunday
Feminine · Latin roots · “day of the sun”
Sunday is given to both — 3,197 girls and 120 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Sunday is the one day of the week whose English name still points at a star: Old English Sunnandæg, the day of the sun, a straight translation of the Latin dies Solis. As a given name it has traveled quietly for generations in English, and loudly elsewhere — in Nigeria it is one of the most familiar men's names in the country. Two soft syllables, both of them ordinary words, and nothing in it to spell out.
How old is the name Sunday?
Sunday first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Sunday alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 3,000 people named Sunday are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sunday most popular?
Sunday peaked in 2025, reaching #946 nationally. Today it ranks #946, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Sunday appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From dies Solis (Latin) to Sunday
The story of Sunday
English kept the older, planetary name for the day when much of Christian Europe swapped it for the Lord's day, so Sunday stayed a sun word while Romance languages went to domingo and dimanche. Turning a day into a personal name is an old habit in several traditions: Akan naming in Ghana gives a child a day-name at birth, and Christian missions across West Africa produced English day-names used the same way, which is how Sunday became a common man's name in Nigeria. In the United States it has been recorded as a girl's name, one of a small family of word names — days, months, seasons — that surface in English-speaking countries without ever becoming crowded. The word itself has not changed shape in centuries.
Meaning
day of the sun
The English day-name comes from Old English Sunnandæg, itself a rendering of Latin dies Solis. Most other European languages renamed the day for the Lord instead — Spanish domingo, French dimanche, Italian domenica — which is why the Sunday idea reaches those languages through names like Domingo and Domenica rather than through a sun word.
How the name formed
- dies SolisLatin
- SunnandægOld English
- SondayMiddle English
- Sunday
Related forms: Domenica · Domingo · Domingas · Dominique · Akosua · Kwasi
Pronouncing Sunday
SUN-day
Stress on the first syllable. Many English speakers say the ending as -dee rather than -day, exactly as they do for the day of the week; both are correct and no one will need it explained.
Nicknames for Sunday
High
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
- 1924
- Most girls named
- 2025273 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #946reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +53.4%273 in 2025, from 178
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.
Sunday in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Domenica in Italian — related form
- Domingo in Spanish — related form
- Domingas in Portuguese — related form
- Dominique in French — related form
- Akosua in Akan (Ghana) — related form
- Kwasi in Akan (Ghana) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Sundays among us
people named Sunday are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,887 born in 2025 was named Sunday
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 Marcela test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sunday's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marcela climbed just as high around 1991, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcela's path sketches the road Sunday is walking now.
Sunday 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 Sunday is headed
Sunday is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 75% more babies given the name than today. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Sunday beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sunday in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling every English speaker already knows by heart — never dictated, never corrected, never guessed at.
- Comes with a ready-made short form, Sunny, that also works as a full name on its own.
- Used on both sides of the Atlantic and both sides of the gender line, so it travels without becoming unfamiliar.
- The word itself has been stable in English for over a thousand years, which makes it hard for the name to date.
- Everyone will ask whether the baby was born on a Sunday, for life. If she wasn't, that becomes a small story you both retell — worth deciding now whether that's charming or tiring.
- In the US the name is recorded for girls, but in Nigeria and among the Nigerian diaspora Sunday is overwhelmingly a man's name. Depending on your community, expect both assumptions.
- It is a word before it is a name, so it lands in sentences where a name shouldn't: schedules, calendars, jokes about brunch and sundaes. Most bearers grow into hearing it as their own.
- She will very likely be the only Sunday she meets. That means no surname initial in class, and also that the name always needs a beat of explanation when introduced.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Sunday to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Sunday? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Sunday
Feminine · Latin roots · #946 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sundays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Sunday are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sunday in 2025?
- Sunday ranks #946 among US girl names in 2025, with 273 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sunday?
- About 1 in every 5,887 US girls born in 2025 was named Sunday — 273 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sunday with classmates?
- Sunday will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sunday
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Madalyn#946 · Marcella#948 · Sky#948 · Zaria#943 · Saanvi#943 · Mariella#943 · Sariah#950 · Zyla#950
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sunday? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sunday and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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