Samuel
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "name of God" or "told by God".
Roughly 635,282 people in the United States go by the first name Samuel, which ranks #17 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Samuel today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Samuel births was 2001 (14,845 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Amy (612,999).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Samuel. 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 Samuel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Samuel is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,880 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
635K
~ 1 in 540 Americans
Peak year
2001
14,845 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#17
Tracked since 1880
Census
Samuel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 566,084 people with the first name Samuel, which placed it at #73 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
#73
National first-name rank
People counted
566K
566,084 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
187.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Samuel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samuel is White at 62.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.1%) and Black (11.2%). 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 Samuel 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 Samuel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.5% · 353,572
- Hispanic or Latino19.1% · 108,292
- Black or African American11.2% · 63,349
- Two or more races3.5% · 19,604
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 17,885
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3,382
Gender
Gender distribution for Samuel
Out of the 814,600 babies given the name Samuel since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Samuel as a male name
- Ranked #17 in 2024
- 8,310 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (14,813 births)
Samuel as a female name
- Ranked #13,186 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (64 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samuel appears almost entirely male. Of the 566,085 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Samuel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Samuel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 138,883 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Samuel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Samuel 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 Samuel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 9,129 | 0 | 9,129 |
| 1890s | 7,857 | 16 | 7,873 |
| 1900s | 8,149 | 24 | 8,173 |
| 1910s | 34,166 | 98 | 34,264 |
| 1920s | 43,362 | 237 | 43,599 |
| 1930s | 32,135 | 190 | 32,325 |
| 1940s | 43,127 | 193 | 43,320 |
| 1950s | 53,766 | 218 | 53,984 |
| 1960s | 44,250 | 265 | 44,515 |
| 1970s | 48,103 | 363 | 48,466 |
| 1980s | 73,460 | 519 | 73,979 |
| 1990s | 125,592 | 309 | 125,901 |
| 2000s | 138,622 | 261 | 138,883 |
| 2010s | 108,101 | 142 | 108,243 |
| 2020s | 41,901 | 45 | 41,946 |
Geography
Where Samuels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Samuel, while Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15,418 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Samuel
The name Samuel has Hebrew origins, derived from the Hebrew words "shama" meaning "to hear" and "el" meaning "God". It translates to "name of God" or "God has heard". The name dates back to around the 11th century BCE and was prominent in ancient Israel.
Samuel was the name of a celebrated biblical prophet and judge who played a pivotal role in anointing the first two kings of the Kingdom of Israel, Saul and David. The biblical book of Samuel is named after him and chronicles his life and deeds.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Samuel can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible, where the prophet Samuel is mentioned. In the New Testament, Samuel is also cited as a revered figure in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Throughout history, the name Samuel has been borne by various notable individuals. One of the most famous was Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), an English writer, critic, and lexicographer best known for his seminal work, "A Dictionary of the English Language".
Another prominent Samuel was Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, an American writer and humorist renowned for his novels "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".
In the realm of science, Samuel Morse (1791-1872) was an American inventor and artist who co-developed the Morse code and the telegraph system, revolutionizing long-distance communication.
Samuel Colt (1814-1862) was an American inventor and industrialist who revolutionized the firearms industry with his innovative revolver designs and manufacturing techniques.
Lastly, Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974) was a Polish-American film producer and co-founder of Goldwyn Pictures, one of the most successful independent film studios in the early 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Samuel
People
Samuel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Samuel 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
Samuel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Samuel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 635,282 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Samuel 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 540 US residents.
Is Samuel a common name?
We classify Samuel as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 814,600 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Samuel most popular?
The single biggest year for Samuel was 2001, when 14,845 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Samuel is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Samuel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 566,084 people with the name Samuel, or 187.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #73 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 Samuel 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 Samuel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samuel appears almost entirely male. Of the 566,085 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Samuel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samuel is White at 62.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.1%) and Black (11.2%). 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 Samuel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Samuel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.5% (353,572 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 Samuel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Samuel a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Samuel 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 Samuel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Samuel 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 Samuel 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 Samuel as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Samuel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.