Su
Feminine · “Hebrew shoshan”
Su is given to both — 700 girls and 33 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Two letters is a problem for a database. Forms, airline systems and government records routinely require three characters in a name field, and people called Su, Bo, Al or An spend their lives with an X added or a letter doubled by software.
How old is the name Su?
Su first appears in US birth records in 1935 — 90 years ago. The typical Su alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 600 people named Su are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Su most popular?
Su peaked in 1957, reaching #2416 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 7,691 places below that high. See the whole 1957 chart.
Su appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Shoshannah to Su
The story of Su
Very short names collide with administrative systems in ways that longer ones do not. Minimum field lengths, initials treated as errors, and forms that reject a single character are all documented problems for people with two-letter names, and the workaround is often invented by a clerk rather than the bearer. The same applies to people with one name and no surname, and to names that a system's character set cannot hold. It is a modern version of a very old phenomenon: what a person is called and what the record says have never been quite the same thing, and the record wins. Su itself is a clipping of Susan, which was one of the most common American girls' names of the 1950s and generated an unusually large family of short forms.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew shoshan, a lily
Su is a short form of Susan or Susanna, from Hebrew shoshannah, a lily. The same two letters are the Turkish word for water and a Chinese surname, both unrelated. The American peak is 1957.
How the name formed
- Shoshannah
- Susan
- Su
Related forms: Sue · Susan
Pronouncing Su
SOO
One syllable. Su and Sue are homophones; the shorter spelling is the less common of the two.
Nicknames for Su
Moderate
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
- 1935
- Most girls named
- 195821 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2416reached in 1957
- Change vs 2022
- +28.6%9 in 2025, from 7
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.
Su in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sue in English — spelling variant
- Susan in English — related form
Sus among us
people named Su are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Su
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Frankye test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Su's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Frankye climbed just as high around 1942, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Frankye's path sketches the road Su is walking now.
Su 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
Su beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Su in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two letters, one syllable, impossible to mispronounce.
- Susan and Susanna are available as formal versions.
- It works as a middle name with any first name.
- Very short names cause problems with forms and databases.
- Sue is the standard spelling.
- The 1957 peak dates it to the mid-century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Su
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sus are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Su are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Su in 2025?
- Su ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Su?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Su — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Su with classmates?
- Su will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Su
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Arletta#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Su? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Su and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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