Susan

979,771 people in America carry this name — ranked #26 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it SOO zuhn

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

S UW1 Z AH0 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 979,771 2020 Census
  • Rank #26 Very common
  • As a surname 815 ranked #30,637 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Susan

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “lily”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Susan name popularity by year

1,124,794 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1955, with 47,484 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50s 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1950s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Susan

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Susan Sarah — same opening
  • Susan Nancy — runs together
  • Susan Stephanie — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Short forms of Susan

Short forms as recorded in a 19th-century glossary of Christian names, so the list is old rather than complete.

Going quiet

Susan has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Baby Boomers.

Is Susan a boy's or a girl's name?

0.1% men
979,207 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The same name elsewhere

  • Sue English
  • Suse Lett
  • Zosa Swiss
  • Suzsi Hungarian
  • Suzan French
  • Suson French
  • Suska Slav
  • Susie English
  • Sukey English
  • Sanne Dutch
  • Zosel Swiss
  • Susana Spanish
  • Sosana Wall
  • Santje Dutch

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

The states where Susan is most common

In Rhode Island the name is given 2.1 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Rhode Island ×2.1
  • Massachusetts ×1.9
  • Connecticut ×1.8
  • Maine ×1.7
  • Vermont ×1.7

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Full names people carry

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Names built the same way as Susan

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Adult Height

Open Adult Height on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin