Holiday Calendar

National Susan Day

Next celebratedSaturday, February 27, 2027

Nearly every Susan in America was born inside two decades, which makes February 27 less a name day than a reunion: their average age is roughly 66.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEFebruary 27
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Susan B. Anthony was born on the 15th, not the 27th.

National Susan Day appears on holiday-listing sites and in social posts each 27 February, a date that does not match Susan B. Anthony's birthday of 15 February. No documented founder or formal establishment record has been identified.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

The name America loved, then nearly forgot

National Susan Day celebrates a name that briefly conquered America and then nearly disappeared. For four straight years, from 1957 to 1960, Susan was the second most popular name given to baby girls in the United States, behind only Mary.

Then it fell out of fashion, and it kept falling. By the 2020s, Susan sat near the bottom of the list, given to only a few hundred girls a year. A name that once filled American maternity wards had become a rarity in them.

The observance itself is a modest, informal affair with no recorded founder. The name behind it carries a much longer story, one that runs from an ancient word for a flower to the front of the women's suffrage movement.

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ORIGINS

Susan Day history

INTRODUCTION

Long before it topped any chart, Susan was a word for a flower. The name descends from the Hebrew Shoshannah, built on shoshan, meaning lily, and it reached English through the Greek and Latin Susanna.

Its first famous bearer lived in scripture. The Book of Daniel tells of Susanna, a young wife spied on by two elders while she bathed, then falsely accused of adultery when she refused them. A boy named Daniel saved her by questioning the two men apart, catching them in a lie about which tree the tryst supposedly happened under.

CHAPTER 01

Rare, then everywhere

Through the Middle Ages, Susan stayed uncommon, used here and there in honor of the Old Testament heroine. That changed after the Protestant Reformation, when the name spread widely and settled into its short English spelling, Susan.

CHAPTER 02

The American century

Nothing in the name's long history matched what happened to it in the twentieth-century United States. In the years after World War II, Susan surged toward the very top of the country's baby-name charts. Then, almost as fast as it rose, it fell, sliding out of the top ranks and, by the century's end, out of fashion.

CHAPTER 03

A day without an author

National Susan Day belongs to that later chapter, a small February observance for the people who still carry the name. No founder, proclamation, or establishment record has been found for it, and it surfaces mainly on holiday-listing sites and in social posts. It is not Susan B. Anthony Day, a separate and older observance held on February 15.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Susan Day by the Numbers

#2
Peak US girls' name rank, 1957-1960
438,469
US girls named Susan in the 1950s
1,125,774
US babies named Susan since 1880
99.8%
Share of US Susans who are female

TIMELINE

Timeline

Gentileschi paints Susanna

Artemisia Gentileschi paints her Susanna and the Elders, one of many European artworks drawn from the Book of Daniel scene.

Susan B. Anthony is born

The future suffragist is born on February 15 in Adams, Massachusetts, later making Susan a name tied to the vote.

Anthony arrested for voting

Susan B. Anthony is arrested on November 18 for casting a ballot in the presidential election and is convicted the next year.

Susan's biggest birth year

The name reaches its single largest year in the United States, given to roughly 47,000 newborn girls.

The top-five run ends

Susan holds a place among the five most popular US girls' names through this year, then begins a long decline.

Near the bottom of the list

Susan slips to around number 1,100 in the national rankings, chosen for only a few hundred girls.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Susan Day

Susan peaked in rank while getting rarer

Its share of newborn girls was actually higher in 1955 and 1956, when it sat at fifth, than during its 1957 to 1960 run near the very top. The rank climbed only because the names above it were shrinking faster.

The name means lily, not rose

In its original Hebrew, Susan comes from shoshan, a word for the lily, with the 'rose' sense arriving only in modern Hebrew. The root may reach further back still, to an Egyptian word for the lotus.

A Susan was the first woman on circulating US money

The 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar made the suffragist the first female citizen shown on circulating American money. It honored her campaign, not the February 27 name day.

Most Susans today are in their sixties

About 778,000 Americans still carry the name, and their average age is roughly 66. The name that once filled maternity wards now belongs mostly to grandmothers.

GOOD TO KNOW

Notable Susans

Susan B. Anthony

The suffragist whose campaigning gave the Nineteenth Amendment its nickname, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.

Susan Sontag

An American writer and critic, a leading literary voice of her era.

Susan Sarandon

An Oscar-winning American actress.

Susan Lucci

A daytime television star long identified with the American soap opera.

Susan Boyle

A Scottish singer who found fame on a televised talent show.

Susan Wojcicki

A technology executive who served as chief executive of YouTube.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Susan Day

DEMOGRAPHY

A name this concentrated is almost a birth year in disguise.

Susan rose and fell so sharply that almost everyone who carries it was born within a couple of decades. A day for Susans is, in practice, a reunion of a single mid-century cohort.

LANGUAGE

It celebrates a whole family of names

Susan anchors a sprawling set of nicknames and cousins, from Sue and Susie to Suzanne, Shoshana, and Zsuzsanna. Marking the day recognizes those forms across several languages, not one spelling.

MEMORY

It keeps a fading name in view

New parents rarely pick Susan anymore, so the name is quietly passing out of everyday use. A fixed date gives it a yearly moment of attention that its birth numbers no longer command.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Susan Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Reach out to a Susan you know

Call, text, or visit a Susan, Sue, or Susie in your life. A short hello turns the date into her day.

HOST

Host a small get-together for the Susans

Invite the Susans in your circle for coffee or dinner. Make them the guests of honor for one evening.

WATCH

Watch a celebrated Susan at work

Cue up a film, a performance, or an interview from one of the many Susans in music, movies, and television. Let the evening double as a small tribute to their careers.

DIG

Dig into the name's long backstory

Spend a few minutes reading up on where the name comes from and the people who made it famous. Start with a name reference like Behind the Name and follow the threads.

LOOK

Look up the Susans in your family tree

Search old records for relatives named Susan, Susanna, or Suzanne. The name's mid-century boom means many families have at least one.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Susan Day?

1 / 8

What does the name Susan originally mean?

Answer

No. Susan B. Anthony Day falls on February 15 and honors the suffragist, while National Susan Day is a February 27 name day, and no source ties the two together.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

7sources
2primary records
0independently dated
Primary records
Behind the Name
Popularity for the name Susan (United States)
SSA year-by-year US rank and birth share for the name Susan.
View source
Name Census
Susan: Name Meaning, History, and Popularity
SSA and Census counts for Susan: totals, peak decade, and living bearers.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Susanna (given name): meaning, origin and history
Traces Susan and Susanna to the Hebrew word for lily, common after the Reformation.
View source
Wikipedia
Susanna (Book of Daniel)
The Book of Daniel story of Susanna, falsely accused and cleared by Daniel.
View source
Wikipedia
Susan B. Anthony
Life of the suffragist, including her arrest for voting and the 1979 dollar coin.
View source
Wikipedia
Susan (given name)
The name's nicknames and cross-language forms, from Sue to Suzanne and Zsuzsanna.
View source
Wikipedia
List of people named Susan
A roster of notable people named Susan across many fields.
View source
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