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The first name 
Samuel

Samuel is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.

The name Samuel is very popular!

The first name Samuel is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #23 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Samuel, accounting for approximately 0.60 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 765,062 people – children, adults and seniors – named Samuel living in the United States, which is approximately 0.23 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Samuel

What does the name 
Samuel mean?

The name Samuel has a Hebrew origin. The exact derivation and meaning is not clear. Several options are possible: For example, it may be derived from the Hebrew ‘Śāmū’ and ‘ʾēl’ (‘God has set/placed’) or from ‘śēm’ and ‘ʾēl,’ meaning ‘descendant of God.’

There are quite a few famous people called Samuel

An unforgotten Entertainer

Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925 - 1990)
Samuel George 'Sammy' Davis, Jr. was an American entertainer. His versatile talent for singing, dancing, and performing songs with his characteristic ease and elegance earned him the reputation as 'The World

An award-winning Actor

Samuel L. Jackson (*1948)
Samuel Leroy Jackson is a famous American Actor and producer. He is best known for his role as 'Jules Winnfield' in Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' (1994). He starred in countless Hollywood productions such as 'Jurassic Park' (1993), 'A Time to Kill' (1996), 'The Negotiator' (1997), 'Jackie Brown' (1997), 'Deep Blue Sea' (1999), 'Coach Carter' (2005), 'Django Unchained' (2012) or the 'Star Wars' prequel trilogy (1999

Inventor of Communication Technology

Samuel Morse (1791 - 1872)
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American painter and inventor. His name is still known today from the so-called Morse codes which he co-developed. Based on the European telegraph, he contributed to the invention of the single-wire telegraph system in the United States and advanced the commercial use of telegrams with the Morse codes. The invention is an important part of the development of modern communication systems. Although he went down in history for these striking inventions, he had already established himself as a successful portrait painter before that.

A style-defining Dramatist

Samuel Beckett (1906 - 1989)
Samuel Becket was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer and poet. His most common work is propably the play 'Waiting for Godot' (1952). He included numerous self-references in his works and paired them with black humor. He is known for his linguistic experiments and is one of the last writers of modernism. In 1961, dramatist and journalist Martin Esslin coined the term 'The Theatre of the Absurd', which encompasses Becket's plays. Other well-known dramatic works include 'Endgame' (1957) or 'Happy Days' (1961), while 'Murphy' (1938), 'Malone Dies' (1951) and 'Watt' (1953) are among the most important novels.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Samuel, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Samuel? Are you also called Samuel? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

An abbey

St. Samuel was an abbey of the Premonstratensians in the Kingdom of Jerusalem founded by the Crusaders. Today there is a mosque on the site of the Prophet's tomb.

In Portugal...

you can find the township (freguesia) of Samuel. There you can visit the local church 'Igreja Paroquial de Samuel'.

The Samuel Islands...

are a small group of islands and cliffs just off the south coast of South Georgia. The archipelago is named after the whaling ship 'Don Samuel', built in 1925.

A peak

Samuel Peak is a peak about 1,771 ft (600 m) high on Livingston Island in the archipelago of the South Shetland Islands.

Samuel -
someone you can count on

Samuel is the epitome of endurance. Every year since first names have been registered in the United States, parents have come up with the idea of naming their son Samuel. This means that several boys named Samuel have witnessed historic events such as the first Nobel Prize ceremony, the moon landing, the release of the first cell phone, or the turn of the millennium. The first name Samuel has reached its highest rank of 17 numerous times, but that was long ago before the beginning of the last century, last time in 1884. Nevertheless, the name has been in the top 100 repeatedly. This makes Samuel one of the most popular names of all time.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Samuel was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Samuel in 2022 – still a popular name

Samuel will be Samuel. Like every other year, there have been newborns named Samuel in 2022 – in fact 8,350 to be precise, confirming Samuel is still a popular first name. In this most recent year for which US-wide statistics are available, the name ranked #22 among all boys‘ names. For comparison, the least popular year for this first name was 1960, when only 4,735 baby boys were named Samuel.

Samuel -
well known in all states of the USA, most popular in South Carolina

There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Samuel is one of them. However, Samuel is not equally widespread in all states, but people in South Carolina seem to particularly fancy this name – the 17,340 men called Samuel who live here are 0,748% of all male residents and push their name up to #17 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in South Carolina. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 765,062 people with the name Samuel. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Samuel on position 42 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.

Samuel has 6 letters 
and begins with an S

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter S is a quite popular first letter for boys’ names. Because: 5.9% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters for boys’ names are J, A and D.

With six letters, the name Samuel is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

This means that with 5.9% of all boys' names that begin with an S, this first letter is much more common than all 26 letters on average - and the most popular one of all the boys’ names starting with S is Steven.

Other names with 
S, a, m, u, e and l

If you take all the letters in the name Samuel – S, a, m, u, e and l – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Sameul or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Samuel

If your name is Samuel and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Samuel

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Samuel, you can simply say:

Sun

Apple

Mouse

Unicorn

Elephant

Lion

This is how the name Samuel is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Samuel in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Samuel

Samuel

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Samuel

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Samuel is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

S
A
M
U
E
L

Have you ever waved the name Samuel

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

S
A
M
U
E
L

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Samuel sounds like this: