Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Sue was most popular in 1947, when 5,318 American babies were given the name — ranking #138 that year. In 2025 it ranked #15,103, with 11 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 145,055 people named Sue.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Sue is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 145 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 145,055 American births named Sue between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 87,521 are estimated to be alive today.
11 American babies were named Sue in 2025, ranking #15,103 that year.
Sue is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 9 births a year across 2021–2025 against 17 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Sue is a girl’s name — 99.6% of the 145,055 Americans given it were girls and 0.4% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 100% girls and 0% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 87,521 Americans named Sue are alive today — 60% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 72 years old, and half are between 65 and 79.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Hebrew · short form of Susan, "lily"
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Sue on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org