How many Sunshines are there in the world?

No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,400 people named Sunshine are estimated to be alive in the US today.

How popular is the name Sunshine in 2025?

Sunshine ranks #2933 among US girl names in 2025, with 57 babies given the name.

How rare is the name Sunshine?

About 1 in every 28,198 US girls born in 2025 was named Sunshine — 57 in all.

Will my child share the name Sunshine with classmates?

Sunshine will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Sunshine

Feminine · “the light of the sun”

Sunshine is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 5,734 girls against 45 boys since 1880.

#2933 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year

rare57 girls in 2025

Sunshine is two Old English words that have been together for a thousand years, and it is one of the very few English compounds that became a name without being a surname first. It went straight from the weather to the certificate.

How old is the name Sunshine?

Sunshine first appears in US birth records in 1905 — 120 years ago. The typical Sunshine alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 5,400 people named Sunshine are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Sunshine most popular?

Sunshine peaked in 1975, reaching #533 nationally. Today it ranks #2933, 2,400 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.

Compare this name More “S” names

Lists built from the same records:

Where it comes from

From sunne to Sunshine

The story of Sunshine

English has occasionally made names out of ordinary weather and light — Dawn, Sunny, Summer, Rain — and Sunshine belongs to that small group. Its American record is concentrated in the nineteen-sixties and seventies, which places it firmly in the counterculture naming of that period alongside Rainbow, Meadow and Harmony. It has never been common but it has never entirely gone away either, and it is one of the few names of that moment that still reads as warm rather than merely dated.

Meaning

the light of the sun

Old English sunne, 'sun', with scinan, 'to shine' — both native English words, and the compound is recorded from the Middle English period. It is one of the few common English words that has no Latin or French in it at all. The reading is exact and needs no explaining to anyone.

How the name formed

sunne
sunshine

Pronouncing Sunshine

SUN-shine

Two syllables, stress on the first. Every English speaker says and spells it correctly without being told; the word is as ordinary as words get.

Nicknames for Sunshine

Moderate

SunnyThe most-used short form, and a complete name in its own right for both sexes

SunniThe same sound with a different spelling, used informally

ShineTaken from the back of the name

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: 1905
Most girls named: 1976296 — the highest on record
Peak rank: #533reached in 1975
Change vs 2023: −26.0%57 in 2025, from 77

Sunshine sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 1976, with 296 girls. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Sunshine in other languages

Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.

Sunshines among us

5,400

people named Sunshine are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 girl in 28,198 born in 2025 was named Sunshine

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

III

Is it right for you

What happens to a name after it peaks

The Madonna test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sunshine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Madonna climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Madonna's path sketches the road Sunshine is walking now.

40%chance Sunshine will feel dated by 2040

Sunshine, aligned on its peakMadonna· peak 1933not yet written

Sunshine today is about where Madonna stood in 1983 — 50 years past a #533-sized peak. By 1998, Madonna had settled around #6561.

Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Sunshine 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

Where Sunshine is headed

Sunshine should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.

Steady-2% by 2030projected around #3,056 in 2030

Medium 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.

Sunshine beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Sunshine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Sunshinethis name57#2933Taylynn57#2933Tali57#2933Ivori57#2933Layah57#2933

US girls given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths

Said and spelled correctly by every English speaker without any explanation.
Sunny is a ready short form and a complete name with its own record.
The meaning is warm, plain and entirely unambiguous.

What to consider

It is a very cheerful name to carry through a bad day, and the remarks come.
It is tied precisely to one American decade, which is audible to anyone who was there.
Word-names of this kind are read as nicknames on formal paperwork.

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Sunshine

Feminine · #2933 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Sunshines are there in the world?: No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,400 people named Sunshine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How popular is the name Sunshine in 2025?: Sunshine ranks #2933 among US girl names in 2025, with 57 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Sunshine?: About 1 in every 28,198 US girls born in 2025 was named Sunshine — 57 in all.
Will my child share the name Sunshine with classmates?: Sunshine will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Sunshine

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Taylynn^#2933 · Tali^#2933 · Ivori^#2933 · Layah^#2933 · Jailyne^#2933 · Azlynn^#2933 · Blima^#2933 · Melisa^#2933

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sunshine? See the current top 100.

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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