Sue
Feminine · Hebrew roots · “lily (Hebrew shoshanna)”
Sue is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 144,536 girls against 519 boys since 1880. See Sue as a boy name
Sue is the one-syllable end of a long road that starts with the Hebrew Shoshanna and runs through Susanna and Susan. It has two unusually vivid modern stories: Shel Silverstein's song about a father who names his son Sue, and a Tyrannosaurus rex in Chicago named for the woman who found it.
How old is the name Sue?
Sue was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Sue alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 90,000 people named Sue are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sue most popular?
Sue peaked in 1946, reaching #61 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 8,799 places below that high. See the whole 1946 chart.
Sue appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Shoshanna (Hebrew) to Sue
The story of Sue
Susanna entered Christian naming through the story of Susanna and the elders, and English wore it down to Susan and then Sue. In 1969 Johnny Cash recorded Shel Silverstein's song A Boy Named Sue, in which a father gives his son the name so he will grow up tough, and the son spends years hunting him down for it. In 1990 the fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson found one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons ever uncovered, in South Dakota; it was named Sue after her and now stands in Chicago's Field Museum.
Meaningscholars disagree
lily (Hebrew shoshanna)
Sue shortens Susan and Susanna, from the Hebrew Shoshanna. The word is usually translated 'lily'; it has also been traced to an Egyptian word for the water lily, or lotus, and which flower the Bible means cannot be fixed.
How the name formed
- ShoshannaHebrew
- SusannaGreek and Latin
- SusanEnglish
- Sue
Related forms: Shoshana · Suzanne · Susana · Susanne
Pronouncing Sue
SOO
One syllable, rhyming with blue.
Nicknames for Sue
Limited
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19484,675 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #61reached in 1946
- Change vs 2022
- +120.0%11 in 2025, from 5
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.
Sue in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shoshana in Hebrew — transliteration
- Suzanne in French — related form
- Susana in Spanish — related form
- Susanne in German — related form
Sues among us
people named Sue are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Sue
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 Wilma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sue's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Wilma climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Wilma's path sketches the road Sue is walking now.
Sue 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
Sue beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sue in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Impossible to misspell or mispronounce.
- Works alone or as the short form of Susan, Susanna or Suzanne.
- Two memorable namesakes, a song and a dinosaur, that make easy conversation.
- It is spelled like the legal verb, and the pun will come up.
- It is given to boys only rarely, and a boy called Sue will have the Johnny Cash song quoted at him often.
- On its own it is best known among women of earlier generations, usually as a short form.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Sue
Feminine · Hebrew roots · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sues are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 90,000 people named Sue are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sue in 2025?
- Sue ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sue?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Sue — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sue with classmates?
- Sue will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sue
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Velia#8860 · Lida#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sue? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sue and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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