MEANING & HISTORY
What does Susan mean?
Susan is an English form of Susanna, continuing a Hebrew name associated with a lily. The scholarly medieval dictionary records the broader floral sense lily or rose, while the imported account gives lily and discusses a possible older Egyptian word history.
A concise profile can lead with the familiar lily interpretation without pretending to identify one modern plant species. Susan, Susanna and Suzanne are related forms with distinct language routes. The flower meaning belongs to the word history, not a claim about the personality or appearance of a bearer.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
English form of the biblical Susanna, from Biblical Hebrew שׁוֹשַׁנָּה (šōšannā, “lily”), ultimately from Egyptian z:S:n-M9 (zšn).
A female given name from Hebrew.
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Susan
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Susan Roces
Filipino actress (1941–2022)
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Susan Fernandez
Filipino musician (1956–2009)
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
9
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
7
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Susan Roces, Susan Fernandez
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Susan in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Susan
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Susana♀Form of Susanna; lily-name tradition
- Sansan♀Repeated familiar form of Susan
- Suga♀Cebuano light-name route; separate Japanese forms
- Sugar♀English word name for sugar
- Susie·Familiar Susan form in the Hebrew lily-name family
- Susing♀Familiar Susan or Susanna; a botanical Hebrew family
- Hassan·Hasan variant, or the distinct Arabic beautifier-name
- Sue♀Short form of Susan; lily-name family
What rhymes with Susan?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Recorded combinations with Susan
1 source-reported compound forms include this name as a component. Each part keeps its own history.
Names in this collection
Explore combinations →Explore Susan further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q14936243 — Susan (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Susan Roces (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q14936243 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Susan Fernandez (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q14936243 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Susan (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources — Susan (opens in a new tab)
Hebrew floral sense lily/rose and historical Susanna forms.