Sammie
A feminine diminutive of Samuel, derived from the Hebrew meaning "God has heard".
Name Census estimates that about 13,620 living Americans carry the first name Sammie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Sammie today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sammie births was 1947 (636 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sammie. 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 Sammie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
14K
~ 1 in 25,166 Americans
Peak year
1947
636 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,439
Tracked since 1880
Census
Sammie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,688 people with the first name Sammie, which placed it at #2,356 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
#2,356
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,688 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sammie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sammie is Black at 47.5%. The next largest groups are White (41.7%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Sammie 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 Sammie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.5% · 5,077
- White41.7% · 4,452
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 437
- Two or more races3.1% · 334
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 260
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 128
Gender
Gender distribution for Sammie
Sammie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 28,619 total registrations, 20,818 (72.7%) were male and 7,801 (27.3%) were female.
Sammie as a male name
- Ranked #5,005 in 2024
- 20 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (492 births)
Sammie as a female name
- Ranked #4,439 in 2024
- 32 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1943 (186 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sammie on both sides of the split. Of the 10,686 people counted with this name, 6,726 were male (62.9%) and 3,960 were female (37.1%).
Popularity
Sammie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sammie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 5,637 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sammie 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 Sammie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sammies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Sammie, while New Jersey, New Mexico, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 842 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sammie
The name Sammie has its origins in the Hebrew language, derived from the name Samuel. Samuel, meaning "name of God" or "heard by God," can be traced back to the Old Testament and the biblical figure Samuel, a prominent prophet in ancient Israel during the 11th century BC.
Sammie emerged as a diminutive or shortened version of Samuel, primarily used as a nickname or informal variant. This practice of creating diminutive forms of names was common across various cultures and time periods, often reflecting a sense of familiarity or endearment.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sammie can be found in the writings of William Shakespeare. In his play "The Merry Wives of Windsor," written around 1597, Shakespeare references a character named "Sammy," which is likely a diminutive form of Samuel.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Sammie. One prominent example is Sammie Sosa (born 1968), a former professional baseball player from the Dominican Republic who played for teams like the Chicago Cubs and the Baltimore Orioles, known for his impressive home run records.
Another noteworthy Sammie was Sammie Lee Hill (1935-1986), an American blues singer and harmonica player from Mississippi, who contributed significantly to the Chicago blues scene in the 1960s and 1970s.
The name Sammie has also been associated with literary figures, such as Sammie Abbott Rushlight (1884-1959), an American writer and educator known for her children's books and contributions to children's literature.
In the realm of sports, Sammie White (born 1973) was a professional basketball player from the United States who played in the NBA for teams like the Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Celtics.
Additionally, Sammie Smith (born 1965) was an American football running back who played in the NFL for teams like the Miami Dolphins and the Denver Broncos during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While the name Sammie has its roots in the Hebrew language and biblical tradition, it has transcended cultural boundaries and found widespread usage across various regions and communities throughout history, often serving as a familiar and affectionate form of the more formal name Samuel.
People
Sammie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sammie 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
Sammie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sammie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,620 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sammie 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 25,166 US residents.
Is Sammie a common name?
We classify Sammie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 28,619 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sammie most popular?
The single biggest year for Sammie was 1947, when 636 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sammie is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sammie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,688 people with the name Sammie, or 3.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,356 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 Sammie 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 Sammie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sammie on both sides of the split. Of the 10,686 people counted with this name, 6,726 were male (62.9%) and 3,960 were female (37.1%). 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 Sammie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sammie is Black at 47.5%. The next largest groups are White (41.7%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Sammie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Sammie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.5% (5,077 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 Sammie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sammie a male name?
Yes, 72.7% of people registered as Sammie 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 Sammie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sammie 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 Sammie 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 have the name Sammie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.