Sam

Diminutive of Samantha

"told by God"

Sam Origin and Meaning

The name Sam is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "told by God".

Sam as a name standing on its own was given to only 18 girls in 2021, versus over 400 boys. But as a short form it's appealing and down-to-earth for both sexes, and heard far more often: There were over 2500 baby girls named Samantha in the US in one recent year and more than 8500 boys named Samuel, so you will hear the name Sam a lot more often than you might guess judging by the numbers for this short form. Like the wildly popular Charlie, Sam is a nickname that works equally well as a girls' name as a boys'. All forms considered, Sam is still one of the most popular names that start with S.

Sam Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 3186 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Sam

• 93 Netherlands 2019

20 Names Similar to Sam

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Sam.

• Jackie
• Kimberley
• Jess
• Lacy
• Jody
• Jesse
• Liz
• Britney
• Jayne
• Page
• Lizzie
• Angie
• Josh
• Becky
• Missy
• Kat
• Ally
• Carlie
• Abby
• Matt

Famous People Named Sam

• Samantha "Sam" Brown English pop singer
• Samantha Elizabeth "Sam" Faiers English reality TV personality
• Samantha Ann "Sam" Quek English Olympic hockey player
• Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox English pop singer
• Samantha Jane "Sam" Stosur Australian tennis player
• Samantha June "Sam" Mewis American soccer player
• Samantha May "Sam" Kerr Australian soccer player
• Samantha "Sam" Mozes (b. 1996) daughter of actress Cynthia Nixon and Danny Mozes
• Sam J Sheen (b. 2004) daughter of actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards
• Sam Alexis Woods (b. 2007) daughter of golfer Tiger Woods
• Samantha Rae "Sam" Simpson (b. 2013) daughter of pair skater Jamie Salé and ice hockey player Craig Simpson
• Samantha Faith "Sam" Rogers (b. 2016) daughter of singer and TV personality Matt Rogers

The name Sam in Pop Culture

• Samantha "Sam" Carter character on TV show "Stargate SG,1"
• Samantha "Sam" Puckett character on TV's "iCarly" and "Sam & Cat"
• Samantha "Sam" Manson character in animated series "Danny Phantom"
• Dr. Sam Nicholls character on British TV show "Casualty"
• Sam character in book/film "Perks of Being a Wallflower"
• Sam character in the movie "The Space Between"
• Samantha "Sam" Stevens character on TV's 'Bewitched'
• Samantha "Sam" Montgomery character in movie "A Cinderella Story"
• Samirah "Sam" Al Abbas character in the Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan
• Samantha "Sam" White character from the Netflix series "Dear White People"
• Sam Stanton main character in movie "Switching Goals"
• Samantha "Sam" Giddings character in video game "Until Dawn"