Steve, what you are seeing (-01) is not a version number, but a 'suffix' Ai adds to the file name, it’s a number of the artboard exported.
The things is — Ai doesn't show this Suffix option in the Save As and Save a copy dialog, it’s exposed in the Export As dialog only (but is sticky and affects the name generated even when is hidden, even though not displayed in the file name field).
I’ve merged your request with a main one on the topic.

Yes, this is a problem for me too. Two things are working against each other:
1. "Use artboards" checked off by default
2. Automatically adding suffix to SVG file name

I end up accidentally saving SVG files without a bounding box, remembering that I forgot the artboards checkbox, and now I have to follow steps to:
- Open a random file with the correct artboard size
- Open the file with the wrong bounding box size
- Copying the contents of the second file into the first file
- Saving the second file under the name of the first file
- Now I have two or even more files with a suffix in the name

And now I end up deleting the wrong files. I remember saving the original file as "file_name.svg" but this original file does not exist, because Illustrator automatically turns it into "file_name-01.svg". I'm under the impression that the file with suffix is the wrong one because Illustrator added the suffix, and I saved a file with a suffix that had no boundaries. But the suffixed file is actually the original that I end up deleting.

This feature was meant to prevent overriding original files, but I end up deleting the wrong ones all the time now.

Illustrator Save as SVG has become an absolute pain for me in the past year(s) because two things are working against each other:
1. "Use artboard" is off by default, causing me to continuously save SVG's without boundaries
2. "-01", "-02", etc. is automatically added behind file names, requiring me to rename them

The effects for me are destructive:

I keep deleting the wrong files because after saving, I remember that I forgot to check "Use artboards", and now I end up:
1. Opening another random file with the correct artboard size
2. Opening the file without bounding box
3. Copying the content of the file without bounding box
4. Pasting it in the existing file with bounding box
5. Saving the existing file under the file name of the first file
6. Ending up with a bunch of files with suffixes "-02", "-03", etc.
7. I don't remember which file is the original anymore, because the original usually does not have a suffix but now ALL MY FILES have suffixes
8. I end op deleting the wrong files and losing my data

And this suffix-function was probably meant to prevent overriding original files. Yet because of its effects, I end up deleting the original files instead.

Meanwhile, after making this mistake a couple of times, my trash can has become an unrecognizable list of files with the exact same file names, and it's impossible for me to find the "original" file that I accidentally removed.

This feature is more of a bug than most crashes and real bugs to me.

Hi Egor,

Thanks for the reminder that Ps already has that feature :) Either option would be great to have in Ai, whichever one makes the most sense. Right now, checking "Use Artboards" on export in Ai is a prerequisite to checking the Suffix box, so I'm not sure whether the Suffix box would work for PDFs since artboards only apply when exporting images. So perhaps the Preferences setting would be best. Cheers!

Photoshop has a dedicated command for changing this behavior: in Preferences > File Handling: Do not append "copy" to filename when saving a copy.
It feels like you want the same thing in Ai, right?
Do you prefer this as an option like Ps has, or do you specifically want a 'Suffix' checkmark, like we have in Ai now on export?
Both ways are consistent, but ...differently :)

I've been trying to figure this out as well. Every time I export a file (not just an .svg file) it adds a number after. Can this be changed in preferences or somewhere? This thread looks old. I'm using AI 2020.

Hi Dirk
If I have 2 files in a folder... Lets say "diagram-A.ai" and "diagram-A.svg" Then I update diagram-A.ai with some new changes and I want to export as svg and override "diagram-A.svg". When I do this in the current illustrator it appends a a number at the end of the file name for example it will export as "diagram-A-01.svg"... It would be nice if if just stayed as "diagram-A.svg" so I don't have to spend a extra time navigating to the file in the the finder, deleting the older version and renaming the newer version...

Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot for adding your request to uservoice. To understand the issue more, could you please elaborate more on you workflow? How do you export SVG files? Do you use File > Export as... File > Save as... or Export assets? Do you export artboards?

Greetings,
Dirk

After exporting SVG files there is a version number added to the file name... can you make this optional... It adds a bunch of unnecessary steps to my work flow as I have to then navigate to the file and rename it every time I export...