Name Trends

See the popularity of first names over time in the USA

How popular is “Sam” in the USA?

Number of people named “Sam” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Sam” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “Sam” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “Sam” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “Sam” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “Sam” by birth year

This chart shows how “Sam” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year Count Proportion Females Males Bias toward female
1880 457 0.00226817 457 -100%
1881 481 0.002496263 481 -100%
1882 555 0.00250527 555 -100%
1883 476 0.002194094 476 -100%
1884 533 0.002189262 533 -100%
1885 492 0.002042731 492 -100%
1886 519 0.002032775 519 -100%
1887 463 0.001871524 463 -100%
1888 612 0.002043583 5 607 -98%
1889 492 0.00170274 6 486 -98%
1890 496 0.001645648 7 489 -97%
1891 418 0.001458107 418 -100%
1892 551 0.001647855 551 -100%
1893 488 0.001500509 7 481 -97%
1894 515 0.001520565 8 507 -97%
1895 492 0.00140163 5 487 -98%
1896 518 0.001449016 518 -100%
1897 483 0.001392103 5 478 -98%
1898 543 0.001423497 543 -100%
1899 469 0.001382526 469 -100%
1900 832 0.001847829 11 821 -97%
1901 486 0.001405388 7 479 -97%
1902 566 0.001463542 7 559 -98%
1903 552 0.001448059 552 -100%
1904 608 0.001506871 5 603 -98%
1905 628 0.001481405 8 620 -97%
1906 558 0.001302366 6 552 -98%
1907 639 0.001373042 8 631 -97%
1908 649 0.001328152 5 644 -98%
1909 708 0.001384911 8 700 -98%
1910 901 0.001525281 13 888 -97%
1911 934 0.001449685 6 928 -99%
1912 1338 0.001354166 13 1325 -98%
1913 1550 0.001363105 23 1527 -97%
1914 1898 0.00134007 18 1880 -98%
1915 2366 0.001291184 27 2339 -98%
1916 2336 0.001207599 23 2313 -98%
1917 2469 0.001230348 14 2455 -99%
1918 2528 0.001164381 23 2505 -98%
1919 2420 0.001146786 36 2384 -97%
1920 2306 0.001019162 23 2283 -98%
1921 2393 0.001025057 26 2367 -98%
1922 2377 0.001038374 28 2349 -98%
1923 2228 0.000967652 24 2204 -98%
1924 2153 0.00090401 30 2123 -97%
1925 2117 0.000907298 25 2092 -98%
1926 2055 0.000895072 22 2033 -98%
1927 1927 0.000830833 23 1904 -98%
1928 1791 0.000792149 32 1759 -96%
1929 1760 0.000802861 30 1730 -97%
1930 1685 0.000757887 17 1668 -98%
1931 1480 0.000703292 20 1460 -97%
1932 1472 0.000697204 18 1454 -98%
1933 1369 0.000684689 18 1351 -97%
1934 1328 0.00063944 7 1321 -99%
1935 1374 0.000657448 10 1364 -99%
1936 1255 0.000604069 19 1236 -97%
1937 1226 0.000575406 13 1213 -98%
1938 1177 0.00053196 15 1162 -97%
1939 1130 0.000512834 9 1121 -98%
1940 1157 0.000502457 10 1147 -98%
1941 1203 0.000493756 12 1191 -98%
1942 1297 0.000474775 17 1280 -97%
1943 1337 0.000473684 15 1322 -98%
1944 1222 0.000454262 10 1212 -98%
1945 1144 0.000431225 7 1137 -99%
1946 1312 0.000410602 8 1304 -99%
1947 1424 0.000395301 8 1416 -99%
1948 1248 0.000361475 10 1238 -98%
1949 1112 0.000319102 8 1104 -99%
1950 966 0.000275735 10 956 -98%
1951 1049 0.000284765 15 1034 -97%
1952 950 0.000250131 10 940 -98%
1953 892 0.000231469 12 880 -97%
1954 887 0.000222825 14 873 -97%
1955 885 0.000220419 11 874 -98%
1956 962 0.000233323 11 951 -98%
1957 1079 0.000256774 10 1069 -98%
1958 1190 0.000287863 13 1177 -98%
1959 1311 0.000315296 13 1298 -98%
1960 1225 0.00029491 16 1209 -97%
1961 1209 0.000291867 17 1192 -97%
1962 1094 0.000271103 23 1071 -96%
1963 1025 0.000258956 9 1016 -98%
1964 964 0.000247968 9 955 -98%
1965 790 0.000217904 16 774 -96%
1966 692 0.000199099 14 678 -96%
1967 618 0.000182038 11 607 -96%
1968 575 0.000170198 8 567 -97%
1969 591 0.000170056 8 583 -97%
1970 613 0.00016997 13 600 -96%
1971 551 0.000160531 10 541 -96%
1972 503 0.000160038 6 497 -98%
1973 482 0.000159767 6 476 -98%
1974 443 0.000145724 6 437 -97%
1975 429 0.000142081 9 420 -96%
1976 398 0.000131167 398 -100%
1977 362 0.000113962 5 357 -97%
1978 424 0.000133591 7 417 -97%
1979 381 0.000114518 7 374 -96%
1980 377 0.00010945 12 365 -94%
1981 384 0.000111003 384 -100%
1982 381 0.00010861 7 374 -96%
1983 371 0.000107122 11 360 -94%
1984 369 0.000105768 6 363 -97%
1985 359 0.000100585 11 348 -94%
1986 389 0.000109359 8 381 -96%
1987 489 0.000135622 6 483 -98%
1988 485 0.000131257 6 479 -98%
1989 508 0.000132139 5 503 -98%
1990 591 0.000149526 5 586 -98%
1991 598 0.00015352 7 591 -98%
1992 575 0.00014969 575 -100%
1993 573 0.000151978 12 561 -96%
1994 554 0.000149019 554 -100%
1995 569 0.000155373 569 -100%
1996 535 0.000146688 8 527 -97%
1997 489 0.000134869 5 484 -98%
1998 492 0.000133761 492 -100%
1999 504 0.000136442 6 498 -98%
2000 523 0.000138363 6 517 -98%
2001 564 0.000150666 10 554 -96%
2002 561 0.000150069 561 -100%
2003 577 0.000151749 577 -100%
2004 600 0.00015703 7 593 -98%
2005 569 0.00014799 12 557 -96%
2006 602 0.000152167 16 586 -95%
2007 623 0.00015584 9 614 -97%
2008 629 0.000160024 21 608 -93%
2009 596 0.000156014 15 581 -95%
2010 562 0.000152067 12 550 -96%
2011 559 0.000152824 14 545 -95%
2012 515 0.000140812 5 510 -98%
2013 494 0.000135503 14 480 -94%
2014 536 0.000144616 13 523 -95%
2015 535 0.000144559 12 523 -96%
2016 495 0.000134925 17 478 -93%
2017 539 0.000150719 12 527 -96%
2018 466 0.000132541 13 453 -94%
2019 456 0.000131377 14 442 -94%
2020 414 0.000123931 12 402 -94%
2021 431 0.000127216 19 412 -91%
2022 436 0.000128875 18 418 -92%
2023 414 0.00012503 11 403 -95%
2024 441 0.000132492 18 423 -92%

Explore other names

These names are alphabetically near to Sam:

  1. Salvotore
  2. Salwa
  3. Saly
  4. Salym
  5. Salyna
  6. Sam (this page)
  7. Sama
  8. Samaa
  9. Samaad
  10. Samaah
  11. Samaara