Sammuel
Masculine · “God has heard”
Sammuel is a spelling of Samuel with a doubled m, and the biblical name is explained by a piece of wordplay that does not quite work.
How old is the name Sammuel?
Sammuel first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Sammuel alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 2,200 people named Sammuel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sammuel most popular?
Sammuel peaked in 1954, reaching #1242 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 3,154 places below that high. See the whole 1954 chart.
Where it comes from
From Shemu'el to Sammuel
The story of Sammuel
Hannah asks for a child and names him Samuel because, she says, she asked him of the Lord — but the verb for asking gives Saul, not Samuel, and scholars have noticed for a long time that the explanation seems to belong to a different name. Whether the text preserves a confusion or a deliberate play is argued. Sammuel with two m's appears in American records in real numbers in the mid-twentieth century.
Meaningscholars disagree
God has heard; asked of God
Samuel joins a Hebrew element to el, God. The text explains it as asked of God, but the word for asking is not evidently present; heard by God fits the grammar better. The explanation is an association rather than an etymology.
How the name formed
- Shemu'el
- Samuel
- Sammuel
Related forms: Samuel · Shmuel · Samuel
Pronouncing Sammuel
SAM-yoo-el
Three syllables, first stressed. Sammuel and Samuel are said identically.
Nicknames for Sammuel
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 200356 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1242reached in 1954
- Change vs 2023
- +15.0%23 in 2025, from 20
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sammuel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Samuel in English — spelling variant
- Shmuel in Hebrew — same name
- Samuel in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Sammuels among us
people named Sammuel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Sammuel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Sammuel
- #4396
- Sammuel on the 2025 chart
- #21
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Sammuel went to 23 boys in 2025, but Samuel is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 8,357, which makes it the 21st most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,375 places above the chart.
- Samuel8,334
- Sammuel23
About 1 boy in 204 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 74,264 for Sammuel itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kenith test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sammuel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenith climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenith's path sketches the road Sammuel is walking now.
Sammuel sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Sammuel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sammuel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of the great biblical names with an unusually interesting textual puzzle.
- Sam and Sammy are both complete short forms with enormous records.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Samuel is the standard spelling and will be written for him constantly.
- The doubled m adds a letter without changing the sound.
- The biblical explanation of the meaning does not fit the word.
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What they receive
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Sammuel
Masculine · #4396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sammuels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Sammuel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Sammuel?
- Sammuel is one of 2 recorded spellings. Samuel is the more common one — 8,334 births in 2025 against 23 for Sammuel.
- How popular is the name Sammuel in 2025?
- Sammuel ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sammuel?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Sammuel — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sammuel with classmates?
- Sammuel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sammuel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Manu#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sammuel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sammuel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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