Humanverse

Samari vs Samuel

American parents have registered 823,085 Samuels since 1880, against 2,198 Samaris. Samuel is still ahead, with 8,342 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Samari against Samuel, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Samari Samuel

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Samuel has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2024, when Samari had 107 and Samuel had 8,362.

Side by side

  Samari Samuel
Total US births 2,198823,085
Most in one year 13014,845
Babies in 2025 748,342
Estimated living today 2,200627,000
Median age today 1527
Peak year 20072001
Best rank 2,147th girls26th boys
Rank in 2025 3,130th18th
First recorded 19901880
Girls / boys 1,499 / 6992,889 / 820,196

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Samuels alive today are over 27; half the Samaris are over 15. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Samari and Samuel.