How popular is the baby name Sue in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Sue.

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Popularity of the baby name Sue


Posts that mention the name Sue

Loretta Lynn named her baby after Patsy Cline

Country singer Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)
Loretta Lynn

In mid-1961, up-and-coming country singer Loretta Lynn moved to Nashville and met established country singer Patsy Cline.

Cline quickly became both a friend and a mentor to Lynn. In her 1976 memoir, Lynn explained:

She taught me a lot of things about show business, like how to go on to a stage and how to get off. She even bought me a lot of clothes. Many times when she bought something for herself, she would buy me the same thing. […] She even bought curtains and drapes for my house because I was too broke to buy them.

In March of 1963, at the height of her career, Patsy Cline died in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

The following year, Loretta Lynn and her husband welcomed their last two children — twin girls. One was named Peggy Jean after Lynn’s sister Peggy Sue, the other was named Patsy Eileen after Patsy Cline.

I named my daughter after Patsy. That’s how much she meant to me. When I had my twins the year after Patsy died, I named them Peggy and Patsy. If only Patsy had been there for that. She’d have liked it.

Loretta Lynn’s four older children were named Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Ernest Ray, and Clara Marie.

P.S. Patsy Cline’s birth name was Virginia Patterson Hensley.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from LorettaLynn1960s (public domain)

How did Loretta Lynn get her name?

Country singer Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)
Loretta Lynn

Country music singer Loretta Lynn (originally Loretta Webb) was born in rural Kentucky in 1932.

Why was she given the name Loretta? Here’s how she told the story in her 1976 memoir:

We just had this one-room cabin they made from logs, with the cracks filled with moss and clay. The wind used to whistle in so bad, Mommy would paper the walls with pages from her Sears and Roebuck catalog and movie magazines. I remember I could see pictures of Hitler, Clark Gable, and that Russian man — Stalin, is that his name? (…) Mommy never went to the movies, but she always liked pictures of Loretta Young and Claudette Colbert. Right over my crib she pasted pictures of them two stars. That’s how I got my name. Lots of times I wonder if I would have made it in country music if I was named Claudette.

Loretta Lynn was the second of eight children; she had an older brother named Melvin and six younger siblings named Herman, Willie, Donald, Peggy Sue, Betty, and Brenda Gail (later known as Crystal Gayle).

P.S. Actress Loretta Young was born Gretchen Young in 1913. Her stage name was chosen by fellow actress Colleen Moore, who named her “after the most beautiful doll I had ever had. Loretta.”

Sources:

  • Loretta Lynn – Wikipedia
  • Lynn, Loretta, and George Vecsey. Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner’s Daughter. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1976.
  • Moore, Colleen. Silent Star. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1968.

Image: Adapted from LorettaLynn1960s (public domain)

Mississippi quadruplets: Kenleigh, Kristen, Kayleigh, Kelsey

quadruplets and stork

In February of 2014, Kimberly Fugate of Mississippi went into labor. She was expecting triplets, but learned in the delivery room that she would be having quadruplets.

What did she name the four identical baby girls?

Kenleigh Rosa, Kristen Sue, Kayleigh Pearl, and Kelsey Roxanne. (Kelsey was the “hidden surprise.”)

Kimberly’s first child, a daughter named Katelyn, was 10 when the quads were born.

(I’ve also blogged about quads with Sh-names and quads with Ch-names.)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Multiplication (1905) by Gordon Ross

Free katsu for people named Kat and Sue

katsukare

Is your name Kat, Sue, or anything similar (e.g., Katie, Suzy, Katrina, Susan, Katherine, Suzanne)? Do you live in the UK?

If so, you can get a free Katsu-based dish (the Katsu Curry, the Katsu Burger, or the Katsu Carbonara) at participating Banana Tree restaurants from September 22 to 25.

To participate in the promotion, visit your local Banana Tree after 4pm on one of the above dates, purchase a drink of your choice, and present both your ID and your “Big Flavour Club” membership code.

The giveaway celebrates National Katsu Day (Sep. 27) — which was invented by a different UK restaurant several years ago. :)

P.S. The Japanese word katsu — which refers to a piece of meat that has been coated in panko, deep-fried, and cut into strips — is a shortened form of katsuretsu, a transliteration of the English word cutlet.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Koshien katsukare 2016 (25623057670) by Kanesue under CC BY 2.0.