Meaning and history
From the Irish surname Ó Súileabháin, an Anglicized form of the given name Súileabhán, which combines Irish súil meaning “eye” and dubh meaning “dark, black” with a diminutive suffix, Sullivan has been moderately popular in France since the 1970s and was rare in the United States before the 1990s, when it began rising steadily. A well-known fictional bearer of the surname is James P. Sullivan from the 2001 animated film Monsters, Inc.
20062006: 203 births, rank #930
2007: 314 births, rank #730
2008: 332 births, rank #705
2009: 380 births, rank #653
2010: 371 births, rank #647
20112011: 488 births, rank #523
2012: 548 births, rank #489
2013: 540 births, rank #503
2014: 634 births, rank #462
2015: 667 births, rank #455
20162016: 783 births, rank #409
2017: 797 births, rank #401
2018: 822 births, rank #388
2019: 778 births, rank #401
2020: 770 births, rank #398
20212021: 876 births, rank #372
2022: 901 births, rank #366
2023: 918 births, rank #358
2024: 1,016 births, rank #339
20252025: 1,083 births, rank #314
Sullivan rose from #339 to #314 for boys between 2024 and 2025. That year also produced its highest recorded birth count, at 1,083.