Samie
A feminine name deriving from the Arabic word "samee'a" with meanings relating to obedience or the ability to hear.
Name Census estimates that about 258 living Americans carry the first name Samie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Samie today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Samie births was 1922 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Samie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Samie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Samie started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
258
~ 1 in 1,328,505 Americans
Peak year
1922
33 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2008 SSA rank
#14,242
Tracked since 1902
Census
Samie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 518 people with the first name Samie, which placed it at #20,076 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#20,076
National first-name rank
People counted
518
518 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Samie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samie is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Samie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Samie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.4% · 287
- Black or African American17.2% · 89
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.4% · 64
- Hispanic or Latino8.7% · 45
- Two or more races3.7% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.7% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Samie
Samie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 808 total registrations, 631 (78.1%) were male and 177 (21.9%) were female.
Samie as a male name
- Ranked #14,242 in 2008
- 5 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1921 (32 births)
Samie as a female name
- Ranked #19,328 in 2010
- 5 female births in 2010
- Peak: 1982 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Samie on both sides of the split. Of the 511 people counted with this name, 230 were male (45.0%) and 281 were female (55.0%).
Popularity
Samie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Samie from the 1900s through to the 2010s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 236 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Samie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Samie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Samies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia recorded the most babies named Samie, while Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Samie
The name Samie is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language, derived from the word "sami" which means "elevated" or "high." It is thought to have emerged in the Middle Eastern region during the medieval Islamic period, around the 7th to 13th centuries.
Samie was a relatively uncommon name in ancient times, but it gained some prominence in the Islamic world due to its association with religious and scholarly figures. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Samie al-Andalusi, a renowned Muslim philosopher and mathematician who lived in Andalusia (modern-day Spain) during the 10th century.
In the 12th century, Samie al-Ghazali, a revered Islamic scholar and mystic, was known for his influential works on theology and Sufism. His book "The Revival of the Religious Sciences" is considered a seminal text in Islamic philosophy.
During the Ottoman Empire, Samie Pasha was a prominent military leader and statesman who served as the Grand Vizier (prime minister) in the late 16th century. He is credited with implementing important reforms in the empire's military and administrative structures.
In the realm of literature, Samie al-Arabi was a celebrated Arab poet and writer from the 13th century. His poetic works, often focusing on themes of love and spirituality, were widely admired and influential in the Arab world.
Another notable figure was Samie al-Dimashqi, a Syrian geographer and traveler who lived in the 14th century. His book "The Cosmography" provided detailed descriptions of various regions and cultures across the Islamic world, making it an important work in the field of medieval geography.
While the name Samie has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in regions with significant Muslim populations or those influenced by Arabic naming traditions.
People
Samie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Samie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Samie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Samie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 258 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Samie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,328,505 US residents.
Is Samie a common name?
We classify Samie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 808 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Samie most popular?
The single biggest year for Samie was 1922, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Samie is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Samie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 518 people with the name Samie, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,076 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Samie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Samie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Samie on both sides of the split. Of the 511 people counted with this name, 230 were male (45.0%) and 281 were female (55.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Samie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samie is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Samie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Samie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.4% (287 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Samie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Samie a male name?
Yes, 78.1% of people registered as Samie in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Samie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Samie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Samie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Samie?
You can see how many people share the name Samie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.