# Samuel (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/samuel/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Hebrew |
| Meaning | “'god has set'”, “'god has placed'”, “i have asked/borrowed him from god”, “asked/borrowed from god” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈsæmjuːəl/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | Sammy, Sammie, Sams, Uel |
| Variant spellings | Shmuel |
| US babies named this | 823,085 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 820,196 / 2,889 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 109,273, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Latin Samuēl, from Ancient Greek Σαμουήλ (Samouḗl), from Biblical Hebrew שְׁמוּאֵל (šəmûʾēl, literally “'God has set' or 'God has placed'”). Taken to mean a contraction of popular folk etymology שְׁאִלְתִּיו מֵאֵל (“I have asked/borrowed him from God”) (Modern: Šəʾīltīv mēʾĒl, Tiberian: Šĭʾīltīw mēʾĒl) by way of שָׁאוּל מֵאֵל (“asked/borrowed from God”) from 1 Samuel 1:20.

## What it means

Samuel is grouped under god.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 6 | 16,423 |
| 2012 | 14 | 8,556 |
| 2013 | 14 | 8,505 |
| 2014 | 14 | 8,419 |
| 2015 | 12 | 9,394 |
| 2016 | 16 | 7,546 |
| 2017 | 16 | 7,381 |
| 2018 | 12 | 9,061 |
| 2019 | 10 | 10,346 |
| 2020 | 14 | 7,897 |
| 2021 | 6 | 14,967 |
| 2022 | 8 | 12,067 |
| 2023 | 10 | 10,196 |
| 2024 | 7 | 13,235 |
| 2025 | 8 | 11,753 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 11,366 | 26 |
| 2012 | 11,470 | 25 |
| 2013 | 11,141 | 25 |
| 2014 | 11,029 | 23 |
| 2015 | 10,905 | 23 |
| 2016 | 10,621 | 21 |
| 2017 | 10,449 | 21 |
| 2018 | 9,854 | 21 |
| 2019 | 9,322 | 22 |
| 2020 | 8,594 | 25 |
| 2021 | 8,580 | 23 |
| 2022 | 8,427 | 19 |
| 2023 | 8,038 | 19 |
| 2024 | 8,355 | 17 |
| 2025 | 8,334 | 18 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 3,803 | 15 |
| 2012 | 3,499 | 15 |
| 2013 | 3,188 | 20 |
| 2014 | 3,021 | 21 |
| 2015 | 2,705 | 23 |
| 2016 | 2,413 | 24 |
| 2017 | 2,083 | 29 |
| 2018 | 1,788 | 33 |
| 2019 | 1,540 | 41 |
| 2020 | 1,261 | 47 |
| 2021 | 1,123 | 56 |
| 2022 | 987 | 60 |
| 2023 | 878 | 62 |
| 2024 | 857 | 60 |
| 2025 | 768 | 66 |

## In other languages

- Arabic: سَمَوْأَل, صَامُوئِيل, صَمُوئِيل, شَمْوِيل
- Armenian: Սամվել, Սամուէլ
- Catalan: Samuel
- Chinese: 塞繆爾 /塞缪尔, 撒母耳
- Czech: Samuel
- Danish: Samuel
- Dutch: Samuel, Samuël
- Estonian: Saamuel
- Finnish: Samuel, Samuli
- French: Samuel
- Georgian: სამუელი
- German: Samuel
- Greek: Σαμουήλ
- Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל
- Hindi: सैम्यूअल, शमूएल
- Hungarian: Sámuel
- Icelandic: Samúel
- Irish: Samúéil
- Italian: Samuele
- Japanese: サミュエル, サムエル

## People named Samuel

- Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer (1709–1784)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet, literary critic and philosopher (1772–1834)
- Samuel L. Jackson, American actor (born 1948)
- Samuel Finley Breese Morse, American inventor and painter (1791–1872)
- Samuel Eto'o, Cameroonian association football player
- Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist (1927–2008)
- Samuel de Champlain, 16/17th-century French explorer of North America
- Samuel Butler, English novelist and critic (1835–1902)
- Samuel Colt, 19th-century American industrialist and inventor (1814–1862)
- Samuel Umtiti, French footballer (born 1993)
- Samuel C. C. Ting, Chinese-American physicist
- Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American physician, geneticist and Nobel prize winner (1925–2011)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.