Suzzanne
Feminine · “lily”
Suzzanne is Susanne with one letter doubled, and the doubling changes nothing that can be heard. Behind the spelling is a very old flower name and a woman who, in the most performed comic opera ever written, is on stage more than anybody else in it.
How old is the name Suzzanne?
Suzzanne first appears in US birth records in 1939 — 86 years ago. The typical Suzzanne alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 600 people named Suzzanne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Suzzanne most popular?
Suzzanne peaked in 1948, reaching #1858 nationally. See the whole 1948 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From shoshannah to Suzzanne
The story of Suzzanne
Mozart and Da Ponte gave the leading part of their Figaro to a servant. Susanna is the Countess's maid, she is engaged to Figaro, and she is the one person on stage who understands the whole plot at any given moment — she is in every act, has more music than the Countess, and by the end has outmanoeuvred a count, rescued a marriage and disguised herself as her own mistress. The opera opens with her and Figaro measuring a room, and the argument they are having is about whether the room's location is a convenience or a trap. That is the clearest sign of what the piece is doing: it hands the intelligence to the servants. A separate thread, much older, connects the name to the Persian capital Susa, whose Hebrew name is spelled like the flower word. The connection is traditional and has never been demonstrated, and Susa's name is more likely Elamite.
Meaning
lily
From Hebrew shoshannah. Whether the flower meant is a lily or a lotus has been argued for a long time, and the word may itself be a loan from Egyptian. The doubled z in this spelling is decoration: the single s of Susanne is already said as a z in English.
How the name formed
- shoshannah
- Sousanna
- Susanne
- Suzzanne
Related forms: Suzanne · Susanne · Susanna · Zsuzsanna · Shoshana · Zuzanna
Pronouncing Suzzanne
soo-ZANN
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The doubled z does not lengthen anything; both z spellings say the same single sound.
Nicknames for Suzzanne
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
- 1939
- Most girls named
- 196427 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1858reached in 1948
- Change vs 1991
- 0.0%5 in 1994, 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.
Suzzanne in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Suzanne in French — same name
- Susanne in German — same name
- Susanna in Italian — same name
- Zsuzsanna in Hungarian — same name
- Shoshana in Hebrew — same name
- Zuzanna in Polish — same name
Suzzannes among us
people named Suzzanne 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
Suzzanne 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
- It is a genuinely old name with a documented meaning, which not every name in its generation has.
- Suzy and Zanne are both available and sound quite different from each other.
- The name exists in almost every European language, so it travels without being rebuilt.
- Susanne, Suzanne and Susan are all commoner and all will be written for it.
- Neither doubled letter can be heard, so the spelling must be given every time.
- It reads as belonging to a particular mid-century generation of women.
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Suzzanne
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Suzzannes 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 Suzzanne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Suzzanne in 2025?
- Suzzanne is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Suzzanne with classmates?
- Suzzanne 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 Suzzanne? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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