Samuel
Samuel is ranked 17th among boys in 2024 (8,310 births). Its best rank was 17th, in 1880–1884, 2024.
- Rank in 2024
- #17up 2 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 8,3100.48% of boys
- Peak year
- 200114,813 births
- Best rank
- #17first in 1880
- Since 1880
- 814,600people given the name
The story in the numbers
811,720 boys have been named Samuel in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2001, with 14,813 births — 0.76% of all boys recorded that year.
It is holding steady: its share of births has moved by less than half in either direction over ten years (rank 23 → 17).
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1990, and the 2000s alone account for 17%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 145 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,880 girls have also been given it, 0.35% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Samuel | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 9,129 | |
| 1890s | 7,857 | |
| 1900s | 8,149 | |
| 1910s | 34,166 | |
| 1920s | 43,362 | |
| 1930s | 32,135 | |
| 1940s | 43,127 | |
| 1950s | 53,766 | |
| 1960s | 44,250 | |
| 1970s | 48,103 | |
| 1980s | 73,460 | |
| 1990s | 125,592 | |
| 2000s | 138,622 | |
| 2010s | 108,101 | |
| 2020s | 41,901 |
In 2001, its biggest year
Samuel was the 26th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 2001 were Jacob, Michael, Matthew, Joshua and Christopher. See all of 2001.
Names that rose and fell with Samuel
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Colemanpeak 1997
- Emanuelpeak 2007
- Jeffersonpeak 2009
- Marshalpeak 1999
- Simonpeak 2015
- Edsonpeak 2019
- Bentonpeak 2016
- Solomonpeak 2016
Other spellings in the data
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.