# Sunil (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/sunil/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Sanskrit |
| Meaning | “very black”, “blue”, “dark” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | Sunny |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 989 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 989 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 177, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Sanskrit सुनील (sunīla, “very black or blue, dark”); ultimately from सु (su) + नील (nīla).

## What it means

Sunil is grouped under black.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 16 | 4,860 |
| 2002 | 8 | 8,342 |
| 2003 | 10 | 7,176 |
| 2004 | 7 | 9,805 |
| 2005 | 6 | 11,286 |
| 2006 | 8 | 9,457 |
| 2007 | 8 | 9,658 |
| 2008 | 7 | 10,891 |
| 2009 | 10 | 8,229 |
| 2010 | 7 | 10,610 |
| 2011 | 6 | 12,078 |
| 2012 | 10 | 8,060 |
| 2015 | 6 | 11,900 |
| 2016 | 6 | 11,957 |
| 2019 | 6 | 11,952 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 26 | 620 |
| 1997 | 21 | 759 |
| 1998 | 20 | 780 |
| 1999 | 18 | 869 |
| 2000 | 17 | 918 |
| 2001 | 18 | 910 |
| 2002 | 17 | 993 |
| 2003 | 7 | 1,962 |
| 2004 | 7 | 2,070 |
| 2005 | 5 | 2,754 |
| 2006 | 5 | 2,870 |
| 2007 | 4 | 3,589 |
| 2008 | 3 | 4,432 |
| 2009 | 4 | 3,744 |
| 2010 | 5 | 3,332 |

## In other languages

- French: Sunil
- Hindi: सुनील
- Italian: Sunil
- Russian: Сунил
- Spanish: Sunil

## People named Sunil

- Sunil Mittal, businessperson
- Sunil Gangopadhyay, Award-winning and bestselling Bengali poet and author (1934-2012)
- Sunil Arora, 23rd Chief Election Commissioner of India

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.