Sue
A feminine given name derived from the French Souveraine meaning "queen".
Name Census estimates that about 73,781 living Americans carry the first name Sue. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sue today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sue births was 1947 (5,318 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sue. 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 Sue with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Sue is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 519 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Sue is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sues were born before 1965.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Sue have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
74K
~ 1 in 4,646 Americans
Peak year
1947
5,318 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1996 SSA rank
#5,483
Tracked since 1880
Census
Sue in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 99,614 people with the first name Sue, which placed it at #551 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
#551
National first-name rank
People counted
100K
99,614 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
33.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sue
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sue is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%) and Black (2.4%). 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 Sue 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 Sue at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 86,478
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 6,566
- Black or African American2.4% · 2,356
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 1,955
- Two or more races1.8% · 1,766
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 493
Gender
Gender distribution for Sue
Out of the 145,042 babies given the name Sue since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Sue as a male name
- Ranked #5,483 in 1996
- 11 male births in 1996
- Peak: 1943 (19 births)
Sue as a female name
- Ranked #8,338 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (5,306 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sue appears almost entirely female. Of the 99,611 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Sue: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sue from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 41,082 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sue 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 Sue during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sues live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Ohio, Michigan, Illinois recorded the most babies named Sue, while Alaska, Nevada, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,698 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sue
The name Sue is an English feminine given name derived from the French name Susanne or Suzanne, which itself originated from the Hebrew name Shoshannah, meaning "lily" or "rose." The name first appeared in ancient texts during the biblical period and was mentioned in the Old Testament as the name of one of the daughters of Elkanah.
In the Middle Ages, the name became popular in Europe, particularly in France and England. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sue was in the 12th century, when a woman named Sue de Senlis, the wife of a French nobleman, was mentioned in historical records from the region of Île-de-France.
During the Renaissance period, the name Sue gained prominence, with several notable figures bearing the name. One such person was Sue Herbault, a French noblewoman and lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine de' Medici in the 16th century.
In the 17th century, the name Sue was also found in literary works, such as the play "The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster, where a character named Sue was featured.
The 18th century saw the rise of several influential women named Sue. One of the most notable was Sue Delaunay, a French painter and textile designer who was a key figure in the Orphism art movement in the early 20th century (1885-1979).
In the 19th century, Sue Nair was a prominent Indian social reformer and pioneer of women's education, who established several schools for girls in the state of Kerala (1838-1905).
Moving into the 20th century, Sue Monk Kidd, an American writer and author of the critically acclaimed novel "The Secret Life of Bees," was born in 1948 and continues to be a prominent figure in contemporary literature.
Throughout history, the name Sue has been borne by numerous influential and remarkable women from various walks of life, spanning multiple cultures and time periods. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its elegant simplicity and versatility, as well as its rich historical and cultural heritage.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sue
People
Sue + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sue 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
Sue: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sue?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 73,781 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sue 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 4,646 US residents.
Is Sue a common name?
We classify Sue as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 145,042 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sue most popular?
The single biggest year for Sue was 1947, when 5,318 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sue is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sue in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 99,614 people with the name Sue, or 32.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #551 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 Sue 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 Sue?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sue appears almost entirely female. Of the 99,611 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Sue?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sue is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%) and Black (2.4%). 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 Sue most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sue in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (86,478 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 Sue in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sue a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Sue 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 Sue still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sue 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 Sue 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 Americans are named Sue?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Sue at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.