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Sultan

#1,243 in 2025Boys' name

Power, strength, through سُلْطَان

Sultan has been given to 2,396 babies in the U.S. since 1966. In 2025 it ranked #1,243 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 161 recorded.

Babies named Sultan, 2025

1 in 20,600

Sultan over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sultan: meaning, origin, and history

Power, strength, through سُلْطَان

Arabic

What Sultan means

Sultan belongs to the name family reached through Sultan → سُلْطَان. Its meaning is “power, strength”.

Origin, language, and formation

Sultan is used in Turkish. Its origins include Arabic.

Sultan comes through Ottoman Turkish سلطان and Arabic سُلْطَان.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include سُلْطَان.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,396 boys were recorded with the name Sultan between 1966 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 161 in 2025; its best national rank was #1,243 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,435 in 2020 to #1,243 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,049 in 2015 to #1,243 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Sultan?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 20,600
161 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 10,600
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,243
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
14,274 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sultan sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5002%

Put another way: gather 14,274 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sultan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sultans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sultan was born before 2016 — so the typical Sultan is around 9 today.

Median birth year
2016
About 9 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
34.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
75.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,396
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 34.1% of all recorded uses (816).

Is Sultan rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+49
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+192
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+806
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.30×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (161)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,243
2025

Spellings of Sultan

Sultan is not the most common spelling — Julian is, with 87.2% against Sultan's 0.79%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Sultan is used

Across 2016–2025, Sultan was most concentrated in Virginia — about 1 in 4,545 boys, against 1 in 12,834 across all states with data. It was least common in Georgia (1 in 100,000).

122 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Virginia1 in 4,545
  2. 2New York1 in 6,667
  3. 3Illinois1 in 7,692
  4. 4Michigan1 in 11,111
  5. 5California1 in 12,500
  6. 6New Jersey1 in 12,500
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 14,286
  8. 8Texas1 in 14,286

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Sultan around the world

Where Sultan ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #360
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1993–2025
    #441
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2001–2023
    #770
    in 2023
  • France
    1975–2025
    #865
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1997–2024
    #547
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1973–2010
    #754
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Sultan

People whose public names include Sultan, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Sultan by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,243
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 192
Best rank ever
#1,243
2025
Peak year
2025
161 that year
First recorded
1966
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,396
Count in 2025
161

Names similar to Sultan

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SulaimanSullyYonatanZoltanEitanSuleimanNatanJonatanTrystanSulaymanTitanTytanDustanChetanSulimanFintanSulemanMatanChristanDastanKristanSullivanJhonatanSuleyman

Names with a curve like Sultan

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Sultan, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ObadiahCedarKaleoMacklinIsaGenesisKilianUmarZakariSirRenOsiris

Sibling names for Sultan

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Sultan

Top names of 2025, Sultan's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2025Boys' names starting with STurkish NamesUncommon Turkish Boy Names