Sunil
Masculine · “dark blue”
Sunil means dark blue, and the color it names is the one India sold to the world. Indigo came from a plant grown across the subcontinent, the word itself means simply Indian, and the trade in it was large enough that a synthetic replacement invented in a German laboratory destroyed an entire agricultural economy within about twenty years.
How old is the name Sunil?
Sunil first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Sunil alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 900 people named Sunil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sunil most popular?
Sunil peaked in 1979, reaching #1435 nationally. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Sanskrit compound meaning dark blue to Sunil
The story of Sunil
Indigo was grown under a system in Bengal that was close to forced labor: cultivators were advanced money at planting and held to contracts that left them permanently in debt, and the rising against it in the 1850s was one of the largest peasant movements of the century. Then a chemist in Germany synthesised the dye, the price collapsed, and the fields went back to food within a generation. The color is still everywhere — it is what makes denim blue — and almost none of it now comes from a plant.
Meaning
dark blue
The Sanskrit compound joins a prefix meaning good or very with the word for the color blue-black. It is a common modern Indian men's name across the north, and it is one of a family of names built on colors and on the sky. The English word indigo, by contrast, is Greek and just means the Indian thing, which is what Mediterranean traders called the dye.
How the name formed
- a Sanskrit compound meaning dark blue
- indigo dye grown across the subcontinent
- a Bengal rising against the planting system in the 1850s
- synthetic indigo destroys the trade
- Sunil appears in American records in the 1960s
Related forms: Sunil · Sunila
Pronouncing Sunil
soo-NEEL
Two syllables with the stress at the back. English speakers manage it easily, which is not true of every Indian name.
Nicknames for Sunil
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
- 1962
- Most boys named
- 197942 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1435reached in 1979
- Change vs 2016
- 0.0%6 in 2019, from 6
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.
Sunil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sunil in Hindi — same name
- Sunila in Sanskrit — related form
Sunils among us
people named Sunil are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Sunil sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, entirely readable and easy for English speakers to say.
- The meaning is concrete and visual rather than abstract.
- Sunny is available and travels well in an English-speaking country.
- It will be heard as Sanil and Suneel by people meeting it once.
- The back half is an English word for nothing at all.
- It marks an Indian family history clearly, which may be exactly right or may not.
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Sunil
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Sunils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Sunil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sunil in 2025?
- Sunil is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Sunil with classmates?
- Sunil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sunil? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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