Humanverse

Su vs Susanne

American parents have registered 26,094 Susannes since 1880, against 733 Sus. But in 2025 it was Su that was commoner, 9 babies to 8.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Su against Susanne, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Su Susanne

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 139 years in which either name was published, Susanne for 135 years and Su for 4 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Su Susanne
Total US births 73326,094
Most in one year 22713
Babies in 2025 98
Estimated living today 64019,000
Median age today 4564
Peak year 19571949
Best rank 2,416th girls289th girls
Rank in 2025 10,107th10,917th
First recorded 19351881
Girls / boys 700 / 3326,094 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Susannes alive today are over 64; half the Sus are over 45. That is 19 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Su Susanne
France 45500
England and Wales 9136

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Su and Susanne.