Susan
Masculine · “a lily”
Susan is given to girls far more often — 1,123,481 girls against 2,541 boys since 1880. See Susan as a girl name
The first American coin to carry a real woman's face carried this name. The Susan B. Anthony dollar was minted at the end of the nineteen-seventies, was widely disliked because it was too close in size to a quarter, and was withdrawn — but it was a first, and it is why a great many Americans know the name.
How old is the name Susan?
Susan first appears in US birth records in 1897 — 128 years ago. The typical Susan alive today was born around 1959, making them about 66 years old. About 1,800 people named Susan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Susan most popular?
Susan peaked in 1957, reaching #762 nationally. See the whole 1957 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From shoshannah to Susan
The story of Susan
Susan is the English form and Susanna the biblical one, and the difference is a whole extra syllable that English dropped. The biblical figure appears in a story that Protestant Bibles do not include and Catholic ones do — a woman falsely accused, and a young Daniel cross-examining the accusers separately and catching them in a contradiction, which is the earliest cross-examination in Western literature. English took the name at the Reformation regardless of which Bible a family used, shortened it, and by the twentieth century Susan was near the top of the American lists while Susanna had almost vanished.
Meaningscholars disagree
a lily
The Hebrew shoshannah is usually read as a lily, though the lotus has its defenders and the word may go back further to Egyptian. The English form is a considerable shortening of it.
How the name formed
- shoshannah
- Susanna
- Susan
Related forms: Suzanne · Susana · Susanna · Zsuzsanna · Shoshana
Pronouncing Susan
SOO-zun
Two syllables with the weight at the front. The s in the middle is said as a z, which the spelling does not indicate.
Nicknames for Susan
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
- 1897
- Most boys named
- 195797 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #762reached in 1957
- Change vs 2014
- 0.0%5 in 2017, 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.
Susan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Suzanne in French — related form
- Susana in Spanish — related form
- Susanna in Italian — related form
- Zsuzsanna in Hungarian — related form
- Shoshana in Hebrew — transliteration
Susans among us
people named Susan are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Susan sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing.
- It has a form in every European language and in Hebrew.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- Sue and Susie are established short forms with different registers.
- It is one of the most generation-marked names in the language and will place a person in time.
- Suzanne and Susanna are close neighbors and are frequently substituted.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
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What they receive
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Susan
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Susans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Susan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Susan in 2025?
- Susan is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Susan with classmates?
- Susan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Susan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Susan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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