Sultan
Sultan was given to 161 boys in 2025, #1,243 among boys’ names; 2,396 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,350 Americans named Sultan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sultan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sultan mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Sultan is “a male given name from Arabic”
Also “a female given name from Arabic”
Inherited from Ottoman Turkish سلطان (Sultân), from Arabic سُلْطَان (sulṭān).
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sultan?
#1,243 among boys’ names, 2025
Sultan rose from #2,049 in 2015 to #1,243 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 36.5 to 94.3 per million.
161 babies in 2025, the peak
Sultan peaked in 2025, when 161 boys were given it, #1,243 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 152 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 161 | #1,243 | 94.3 |
| 2024 | 152 | #1,292 | 88.2 |
| 2023 | 128 | #1,429 | 74.8 |
| 2022 | 145 | #1,307 | 83.0 |
| 2021 | 109 | #1,590 | 62.3 |
| 2020 | 121 | #1,435 | 70.1 |
| 2019 | 102 | #1,621 | 56.8 |
| 2018 | 108 | #1,564 | 59.5 |
| 2017 | 92 | #1,715 | 49.7 |
| 2016 | 98 | #1,637 | 51.6 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 70 | #2,049 | 36.5 |
| 2014 | 58 | #2,292 | 30.2 |
| 2013 | 49 | #2,518 | 25.9 |
| 2012 | 55 | #2,352 | 29.0 |
| 2011 | 43 | #2,787 | 22.6 |
| 2010 | 41 | #2,907 | 21.4 |
| 2009 | 35 | #3,262 | 17.6 |
| 2008 | 25 | #4,123 | 12.3 |
| 2007 | 18 | #5,180 | 8.7 |
| 2006 | 27 | #3,768 | 13.1 |
| 2005 | 32 | #3,225 | 16.0 |
| 2004 | 34 | #3,003 | 17.1 |
| 2003 | 26 | #3,508 | 13.2 |
| 2002 | 34 | #2,808 | 17.5 |
| 2001 | 40 | #2,472 | 20.6 |
| 2000 | 22 | #3,738 | 11.2 |
| 1999 | 27 | #3,085 | 14.1 |
| 1998 | 32 | #2,637 | 16.7 |
| 1997 | 23 | #3,242 | 12.2 |
| 1996 | 24 | #3,089 | 12.7 |
| 1995 | 26 | #2,834 | 13.7 |
| 1994 | 25 | #2,927 | 12.9 |
| 1993 | 21 | #3,229 | 10.7 |
| 1992 | 18 | #3,574 | 9.0 |
| 1991 | 24 | #2,814 | 11.9 |
| 1990 | 18 | #3,436 | 8.8 |
| 1989 | 21 | #2,978 | 10.5 |
| 1988 | 20 | #2,844 | 10.4 |
| 1987 | 15 | #3,313 | 8.0 |
| 1986 | 14 | #3,418 | 7.6 |
| 1985 | 21 | #2,490 | 11.4 |
| 1984 | 15 | #3,084 | 8.3 |
| 1983 | 11 | #3,843 | 6.1 |
| 1982 | 15 | #3,087 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 19 | #2,563 | 10.6 |
| 1980 | 15 | #3,079 | 8.4 |
| 1979 | 22 | #2,301 | 12.8 |
| 1978 | 17 | #2,652 | 10.4 |
| 1977 | 17 | #2,647 | 10.3 |
| 1976 | 28 | #1,817 | 17.8 |
| 1975 | 26 | #1,879 | 16.7 |
| 1974 | 20 | #2,189 | 12.7 |
| 1973 | 14 | #2,700 | 9.0 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,924 | 3.7 |
| 1971 | 8 | #3,924 | 4.5 |
| 1966 | 9 | #2,957 | 5.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Sultan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sultan has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 56 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sultan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sultan, and how old are they?
2,350 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,396 Americans ever recorded as Sultan. The median Sultan alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 2,752 people named Sultan (169 women and girls, 2,583 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,577 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 165 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 292 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 506 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,380 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Sultan born?
The states with the most babies named Sultan are California, New York and Illinois, with 52% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27 | #880 | 0.8× |
| New York | 17 | #839 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 15 | #627 | 0.7× |
| Virginia | 14 | #560 | 1.9× |
| Texas | 13 | #1,466 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 8 | #891 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,102 | 0.3× |
| Maryland | 7 | #687 | 0.2× |
| New Jersey | 6 | #1,012 | 0.8× |
Where Sultan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sultan is most over-represented in Virginia: since 1966 it was given 1.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Sultan with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Sultan
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Sultan and names like it
- Compare Sultan and IdrisBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSultan peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sultan since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Sultan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Sultan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Sultan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.