Samael
Samael was given to 35 boys in 2025, #3,365 among boys’ names; 523 Americans have been recorded with it since 1998 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Samael by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Samael?
#3,365 among boys’ names, 2025
Samael rose from #7,427 in 2015 to #3,365 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 5.7 to 20.5 per million.
62 babies in 2022, the peak
Samael peaked in 2022, when 62 boys were given it, #2,316 among boys’ names. The 35 births of 2025 are 56% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 35 | #3,365 | 20.5 |
| 2024 | 44 | #2,904 | 25.5 |
| 2023 | 55 | #2,473 | 32.2 |
| 2022 | 62 | #2,316 | 35.5 |
| 2021 | 51 | #2,582 | 29.2 |
| 2020 | 33 | #3,402 | 19.1 |
| 2019 | 35 | #3,329 | 19.5 |
| 2018 | 24 | #4,321 | 13.2 |
| 2017 | 27 | #3,961 | 14.6 |
| 2016 | 15 | #5,998 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (27)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #7,427 | 5.7 |
| 2014 | 5 | #13,699 | 2.6 |
| 2013 | 15 | #5,866 | 7.9 |
| 2012 | 10 | #8,026 | 5.3 |
| 2011 | 6 | #11,993 | 3.2 |
| 2010 | 15 | #5,979 | 7.8 |
| 2009 | 6 | #12,201 | 3.0 |
| 2008 | 7 | #10,809 | 3.4 |
| 2007 | 13 | #6,541 | 6.3 |
| 2006 | 9 | #8,600 | 4.4 |
| 2005 | 6 | #11,207 | 3.0 |
| 2004 | 11 | #6,887 | 5.5 |
| 2003 | 6 | #10,628 | 3.0 |
| 2002 | 6 | #10,418 | 3.1 |
| 2001 | 5 | #11,974 | 2.6 |
| 1999 | 6 | #9,668 | 3.1 |
| 1998 | 5 | #10,988 | 2.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Samael a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Samael has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 27 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Samael: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Samael, and how old are they?
An estimated 519 Americans named Samael and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 11. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 329 people named Samael (9 women and girls, 320 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 249 born in the U.S. The Census count is 32% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 833,346 babies since 1880, Samael is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 8,420 babies (<1%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Samael
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Samael and names like it
- Compare Samael and SamuelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSamael peaked in 2022.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Samael since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Samael.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Samael alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.