Samella vs Sammy
American parents have registered 45,140 Sammys since 1880, against 716 Samellas. Sammy is still ahead, with 110 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Samella Sammy
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
Of the 128 years in which either name was published, Sammy for 127 years and Samella for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.
Side by side
| Samella | Sammy | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 716 | 45,140 |
| Most in one year | 25 | 1,239 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 110 |
| Estimated living today | 310 | 29,000 |
| Median age today | 72 | 59 |
| Peak year | 1918 | 1947 |
| Best rank | 1,600th girls | 175th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 1,852nd |
| First recorded | 1898 | 1896 |
| Girls / boys | 716 / 0 | 1,758 / 43,382 |
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 Samellas alive today are over 72; half the Sammys are over 59. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Samella Arkansas (24.9×), Tennessee (23.9×)
- Sammy New Mexico (4.8×), Arkansas (3.7×), Mississippi (3.6×)
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: Samella and Sammy.