Suzan
A feminine name derived from the Hebrew name Shoshana, meaning "lily" or "rose".
Name Census estimates that about 6,452 living Americans carry the first name Suzan. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Suzan today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Suzan births was 1955 (484 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Suzan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Suzan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.5K
~ 1 in 53,124 Americans
Peak year
1955
484 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#17,341
Tracked since 1898
Census
Suzan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,524 people with the first name Suzan, which placed it at #2,378 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,378
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,524 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Suzan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Suzan is White at 86.2%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Suzan described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Suzan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.2% · 9,074
- Black or African American4.0% · 419
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 333
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 325
- Two or more races3.0% · 317
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 56
Popularity
Suzan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Suzan from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 3,571 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Suzan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Suzan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Suzans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Suzan, while West Virginia, South Dakota, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 164 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Suzan
The name Suzan is derived from the Hebrew name Shoshana, meaning "rose" or "lily." It is a feminine form of the name Susan, which originated in the Middle Ages as an English variant of the French name Susanne.
The earliest recorded use of the name Suzan dates back to the 13th century in England. It was a popular name among English and French nobility during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Suzan was Suzan de Beaumont, a 13th-century noblewoman from Normandy, France. Another notable historical figure was Suzan de Bavière, a 15th-century duchess of Burgundy.
In the 16th century, the name Suzan gained popularity in England due to its association with the biblical figure Susanna, who was renowned for her virtue and purity. The name is mentioned in the Book of Daniel in the Bible.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Suzan was particularly popular among English and Scottish aristocracy. Notable bearers include Suzan Arundell (1634-1681), an English Catholic writer and translator, and Suzan Ferrier (1782-1854), a Scottish novelist known for her satirical depictions of Scottish society.
In the 19th century, the name Suzan became more widespread across different social classes in Europe and North America. One of the most famous Suzans of this era was Suzan B. Anthony (1820-1906), an American civil rights leader and pioneer of the women's suffrage movement.
Other notable historical figures named Suzan include Suzan Glaspell (1876-1948), an American playwright and novelist, and Suzan Sontag (1933-2004), an influential American writer, filmmaker, and political activist.
Throughout its history, the name Suzan has been associated with qualities such as grace, beauty, and strength of character, reflecting its floral origins and the virtues of its biblical namesake.
People
Suzan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Suzan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Suzan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Suzan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,452 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Suzan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 53,124 US residents.
Is Suzan a common name?
We classify Suzan as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,081 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Suzan most popular?
The single biggest year for Suzan was 1955, when 484 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Suzan is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Suzan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,524 people with the name Suzan, or 3.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,378 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Suzan in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Suzan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Suzan appears almost entirely female. Of the 10,523 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Suzan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Suzan is White at 86.2%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Suzan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Suzan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.2% (9,074 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Suzan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Suzan a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Suzan in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Suzan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Suzan in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Suzan can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Suzan?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Suzan, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.