Short form of Susan, from Hebrew 'shoshana' meaning lily or rose.
Sue is among the most stripped-down, no-nonsense names in the English language — and that economy is precisely its power. A diminutive of Susan, which derives through Latin and Greek from the Hebrew Shoshana, meaning "lily" or "rose," Sue condenses a long history of floral feminine naming into a single syllable. Shoshana appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name of a woman whose story of courage and vindication is told in the Book of Daniel, and the name traveled through centuries of Jewish, Christian, and eventually secular naming culture, softening progressively from Susanna to Susan to the clipped intimacy of Sue.
Sue belonged culturally to the mid-twentieth century in America — the era of Sandra, Beverly, and Carol — names that were crisp, functional, and utterly unadorned. It was the name of a practical woman, a working woman, a woman who got things done. Sue Grafton built one of the most beloved detective series in American crime fiction.
Sue Bird became one of the greatest basketball players of her generation. Johnny Cash immortalized the name in a different register with A Boy Named Sue, using it as a vehicle for a meditation on toughness, identity, and fathers and sons. In the twenty-first century Sue has acquired a certain retro charm.
Where it once seemed plainly ordinary, it now reads as refreshingly direct in an era of maximalist, multi-syllable names. Parents who choose Sue are making an anti-trend statement — choosing clarity over elaboration, history over novelty. It is the name equivalent of a well-worn leather chair: comfortable, honest, and quietly distinguished.