Susanna

About Susanna

Susanna is a biblical name meaning “lily,” with Hebrew roots and a long history across European languages. It belongs to the same family as Susan and Suzanne, while its final a preserves a fuller three-syllable shape in English. Its associations range from biblical storytelling to the fantasy novels of Susanna Clarke.

Meaning and early history

Susanna comes through Greek Sousanna from Hebrew Shoshanna. The underlying Hebrew word shoshan means “lily”; an older connection with an Egyptian word for “lotus” has also been proposed. The familiar floral meaning is clearer than that more distant linguistic possibility.

In the biblical story of Susanna, a woman is falsely accused of adultery. Daniel questions the accusers and exposes their conflicting testimony, clearing her name. The story appears among the additions to Daniel, whose place in the Bible differs between religious traditions.

The New Testament also names a Susanna among the women who supported Jesus's ministry. These are separate figures, giving the name more than one early Christian association.

Susanna was occasionally used in medieval England, then became more common after the Protestant Reformation, often in the Susan spelling. The longer form also continued in languages including Italian, Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch.

Pronunciation and related names

English Susanna is soo-ZAN-uh, with stress in the middle. Italian also uses a z sound, while Swedish and Finnish have an s sound and a different vowel pattern. Finnish places the stress at the beginning.

Sue, Susie, and Suzy are familiar English short forms, and Zanna draws on the ending. Sanna is established in Swedish and Finnish. Susannah is a close biblical spelling, while French Suzanne and German Susanne belong to the same larger family.

Susanna Clarke

Writer Susanna Clarke won the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction for Piranesi, her second novel. The story follows a man living in an immense House whose halls contain statues, tides, and a world he carefully records in notebooks.

His knowledge of that world is incomplete, and encounters with another person gradually unsettle what he believes about his own life. The novel combines an extraordinary setting with questions of memory, identity, and trust.

Clarke's earlier novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell established another elaborate imagined world. She also wrote the story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which includes stories connected with that setting. Her work gives Susanna a strong contemporary literary association alongside its biblical history.

Popularity in the United States

Susanna's largest recorded American birth count for girls came in 1958, with 311 births and a rank of No. 552. There were 178 girls with the name in 2000 and 156 in 2010.

In 2025, 197 girls received Susanna, placing it at No. 1,181. The series shows continued use at modest levels rather than the large totals once associated with Susan.

How popular is Susanna?

In 2025, Susanna ranked #1,181 among girls in the United States, with 197 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 311 in 1958. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.