Susette
Feminine · “lily”
Susette is a French diminutive of Susan, and the woman who made it briefly famous in America spent a year on a lecture tour interpreting for a chief who had been arrested for leaving a reservation to bury his son. The case that followed established, for the first time in American law, that a Native American was a person.
How old is the name Susette?
Susette first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Susette alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 900 people named Susette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Susette most popular?
Susette peaked in 1956, reaching #1480 nationally. See the whole 1956 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Hebrew word for a flower, possibly borrowed from Egyptian to Susette
The story of Susette
Susette La Flesche was Omaha, educated at a mission school and in New Jersey, and she was the interpreter on the tour that followed the Standing Bear trial in 1879. The judge in that case had ruled that an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law — which had not previously been settled — and the tour that followed took the argument to eastern cities for a year. She spoke, wrote, illustrated a book, married a journalist and went on campaigning for the rest of her life. She was also, in the newspapers of the time, almost always called by a translation of her Omaha name rather than by her own.
Meaningscholars disagree
lily, or lotus
Susan comes through Greek and Hebrew from a word for a flower, and which flower is genuinely disputed — the Hebrew may have been borrowed from Egyptian, in which case the lotus is likelier than the lily. The French ending on this version is the standard diminutive, the same one that gives Juliette and Georgette, and it was borrowed into American use as an independent name rather than as a nickname.
How the name formed
- a Hebrew word for a flower, possibly borrowed from Egyptian
- Susanna reaches Europe through Greek scripture
- French makes the diminutive Susette
- American use from the 1940s
- peaks in the middle 1950s
Related forms: Susette · Susan · Shoshannah
Pronouncing Susette
soo-ZET
Two syllables with the stress at the back, following the French ending. The s between vowels is voiced, so it says z.
Nicknames for Susette
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
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 196756 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1480reached in 1956
- Change vs 2007
- −16.7%5 in 2011, from 6
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.
Susette in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Susette in French — same name
- Susan in English — related form
- Shoshannah in Hebrew — related form
Susettes among us
people named Susette 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
Susette 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
- Sue and Ettie are both available and belong to different centuries.
- It is elegant without being difficult for an English speaker to say.
- The name behind it is one of the most established in Europe.
- Suzette is the commoner spelling and will be substituted regularly.
- It reads as a diminutive, which some people find slight for an adult.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the last century.
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Susette
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Susettes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Susette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Susette in 2025?
- Susette is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Susette with classmates?
- Susette will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Susette? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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