Shmuel
Masculine · “God has heard”
Shmuel is the Hebrew name that English turned into Samuel — the prophet who anointed Israel's first kings, and one of the oldest names still in daily use anywhere. Kept in its original form rather than the translated one, it holds onto the consonant cluster English smoothed away, opening with a sound that lands quickly and closes on a clear bell of a syllable: shmoo-EL. In the United States it is concentrated in the New York and New Jersey area, carried by families who kept the Hebrew spelling rather than the Latin one.
How old is the name Shmuel?
Shmuel first appears in US birth records in 1953 — 72 years ago. The typical Shmuel alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 5,800 people named Shmuel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shmuel most popular?
Shmuel peaked in 2022, reaching #913 nationally. Today it ranks #920, 7 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Where it comes from
From Shemu'el to Shmuel
The story of Shmuel
The name is Hebrew, שְׁמוּאֵל, and belongs to the prophet who closes the era of the judges in the Hebrew Bible and anoints Saul and then David. When Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the scriptures into Greek, it became Samouēl; Latin passed it on as Samuel, and from there it reached nearly every European language. Shmuel is not a variant of Samuel so much as the road Samuel came from — the Hebrew form, carried unchanged through Yiddish-speaking Europe and into modern Israel. Its use in American records has been quiet, unbroken and regionally rooted, strongest where Orthodox Jewish communities are largest.
Meaningscholars disagree
God has heard, or name of God
Two readings of the Hebrew compete: shama' El, 'God has heard', and shem El, 'name of God'. The biblical text itself offers a third association — in the first chapter of the book of Samuel, Hannah names her son because she asked the Lord for him, linking it to sha'al, 'to ask'. That wordplay is ancient and deliberate, but it is not the strict etymology.
How the name formed
- Shemu'el
- Samouēl
- Samuel
- Shmuel
Related forms: Samuel · שְׁמוּאֵל · Samuel · Samuil · Samuele · Sámuel
Pronouncing Shmuel
shmoo-EL
Two syllables, stress on the second. The opening shm- is a single cluster, not shuh-m. Some English speakers place the stress on the first syllable instead, and both are heard.
Nicknames for Shmuel
High
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
- 1953
- Most boys named
- 2025256 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #913reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +9.4%256 in 2025, from 234
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.
Shmuel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Samuel in English — same name
- שְׁמוּאֵל in Hebrew — transliteration
- Samuel in Spanish — same name
- Samuil in Russian — same name
- Samuele in Italian — related form
- Sámuel in Hungarian — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New Jersey, New York, California.
Shmuels among us
people named Shmuel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,672 born in 2025 was named Shmuel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Donavon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shmuel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Donavon climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Donavon's path sketches the road Shmuel is walking now.
Shmuel 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
Where Shmuel is headed
Shmuel should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Shmuel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shmuel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds once the shm- cluster is learned, with no silent letters and no competing English spellings in common use.
- Samuel is known everywhere, so the name never needs explaining twice — Shmuel is simply the older form of a name people already recognize.
- Several established diminutives with long histories: Shmuli, Shmulik, Shmiel, and Sam when a plainer form is useful.
- In continuous documented use for close to three thousand years, and current in Hebrew, Yiddish and English communities today.
- The initial shm- is not a natural cluster in English, so expect a fair amount of shuh-MOO-el and Schmuel on forms and rosters. Most people get it after one correction.
- English uses shm- as a mocking prefix — fancy-shmancy — and some children meet teasing built on that. It is a real thing, and generally short-lived where the name is familiar.
- The Hebrew spelling reads clearly as a Jewish name, which is precisely why many families choose it. Outside the regions where it is concentrated, a Shmuel will usually be the only one in the room.
- Some bearers end up living as Sam in secular settings and Shmuel at home. That works well for plenty of people, but it is worth knowing the two names may run in parallel.
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What they receive
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Shmuel
Masculine · #920 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shmuels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,800 people named Shmuel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shmuel in 2025?
- Shmuel ranks #920 among US boy names in 2025, with 256 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shmuel?
- About 1 in every 6,672 US boys born in 2025 was named Shmuel — 256 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shmuel with classmates?
- Shmuel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shmuel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eitan#920 · Frankie#920 · Aspen#920 · Leif#917 · Wesson#917 · Makari#917 · Casper#924 · Kiaan#924
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shmuel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shmuel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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