Humanverse

Sue vs Suellyn

American parents have registered 145,055 Sues since 1880, against 291 Suellyns. Sue is still ahead, with 11 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sue against Suellyn, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sue Suellyn

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

Sue has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1970, when Sue had 666 and Suellyn had 8.

Side by side

  Sue Suellyn
Total US births 145,055291
Most in one year 5,31822
Babies in 2025 11under 5
Estimated living today 86,000210
Median age today 7173
Peak year 19471943
Best rank 69th girls1,834th girls
Rank in 2025 8,860thunranked
First recorded 18801941
Girls / boys 144,536 / 519291 / 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 Suellyns alive today are over 73; half the Sues are over 71. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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