Suzanne

A French lily name

Suzanne is the French form of Susanna and means “lily.” The name comes through Greek Sousanna from Hebrew Shoshanna, based on shoshan, a flower word traditionally translated as lily. A possible deeper connection leads to an Egyptian word for lotus.

The French form gives the older name a different ending and a clear z sound. It became established in English as well, alongside Susan, Susanna, and Susanne. Suzanne retains two syllables in its usual English pronunciation, while Susanna normally has three.

The biblical name family

Susanna appears in the story of a woman falsely accused by two elders and vindicated through Daniel's questioning of them. The separate New Testament Susanna is among the women who support Jesus's ministry. These religious connections helped the name family travel through later European naming traditions.

English Susan became more common after the Protestant Reformation, while French Suzanne continued as a distinct form. The shared flower meaning links them despite their different endings and stress patterns.

Suzanne Lenglen and tennis

French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen gives the name a major sporting association. She won the Wimbledon singles title in 1919 after a long final against Dorothea Douglass Chambers. The match began a period in which Lenglen became one of the most celebrated players in the sport.

At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics she won gold in singles and mixed doubles and bronze in women's doubles. Her success extended across singles and partnerships, with a style of play and public presence that attracted large audiences.

Lenglen also won the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles at the French Championships in both 1925 and 1926. Her career made Suzanne recognizable internationally during the same early-twentieth-century period when the name was becoming more familiar in American records.

Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games

Writer Suzanne Collins supplies a modern literary connection. The Hunger Games appeared in 2008, introducing Katniss Everdeen and a future society in which young people are forced into a televised contest. Katniss's struggle places survival, loyalty, and public spectacle at the center of the story.

Collins had previously written the Underland Chronicles and worked in children's television. Her later readership brought Suzanne into the world of widely read young adult fiction, a different cultural setting from Lenglen's tennis courts.

Pronunciation and familiar forms

English Suzanne is pronounced soo-ZAN, with two syllables and the stress at the end. French Suzanne has a rounded French u sound at the beginning. Suzy, Suzie, and Suzi are established English familiar forms, while Suzette is a French relative.

Susan, Susanna, and Shoshanna belong to the same historical family. Suzanne keeps the French spelling and its final anne shape without adding an extra English syllable.

Popularity in the United States

Suzanne reached its best American rank for girls in 1946, at number 52. Its largest count came in 1962, with 6,851 births. It ranked number 2,380 in 2015, number 3,540 in 2020, and number 2,407 in 2025, when 75 girls received the name.

How popular is Suzanne?

In 2025, Suzanne ranked #2,407 among girls in the United States, with 75 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 6,851 in 1962. 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.