Sam
Sam is ranked 651st among boys in 2024 (423 births). Its best rank was 30th, in 1882.
- Rank in 2024
- #651up 24 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 4230.02% of boys
- Peak year
- 19182,505 births
- Best rank
- #30in 1882
- Since 1880
- 128,347people given the name
The story in the numbers
126,795 boys have been named Sam in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 2,505 births — 0.25% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 423 births in 2024, against 2,505 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1935, and the 1920s alone account for 16%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 47 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,552 girls have also been given it, 1.2% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Sam | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 5,069 | |
| 1890s | 4,941 | |
| 1900s | 6,161 | |
| 1910s | 18,544 | |
| 1920s | 20,844 | |
| 1930s | 13,350 | |
| 1940s | 12,351 | |
| 1950s | 10,052 | |
| 1960s | 8,652 | |
| 1970s | 4,517 | |
| 1980s | 4,040 | |
| 1990s | 5,437 | |
| 2000s | 5,748 | |
| 2010s | 5,031 | |
| 2020s | 2,058 |
In 1918, its biggest year
Sam was the 75th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1918 were John, William, James, Robert and Charles. See all of 1918.
Names that rose and fell with Sam
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Websterpeak 1915
- Lutherpeak 1922
- Monroepeak 1921
- Othopeak 1915
- Rufuspeak 1922
- Charliepeak 1919
- Melvillepeak 1918
- Luciouspeak 1926
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.