Sammye
Feminine form of the name Samuel, of Hebrew origin meaning "God has heard".
Name Census estimates that about 276 living Americans carry the first name Sammye. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sammye today is around 75 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sammye births was 1947 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sammye. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Sammye is about 75 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sammyes were born before 1961.
People living today
276
~ 1 in 1,241,864 Americans
Peak year
1947
29 babies that year
Average age
75
years old
1976 SSA rank
#10,522
Tracked since 1913
Census
Sammye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 481 people with the first name Sammye, which placed it at #21,195 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,195
National first-name rank
People counted
481
481 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sammye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sammye is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Sammye described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Sammye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.5% · 416
- Black or African American8.3% · 40
- Two or more races3.7% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 2
Popularity
Sammye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sammye from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 223 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sammye by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Sammye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sammyes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Sammye, while Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 52 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sammye
The name Sammye is a English variant of the Hebrew name Samuel, derived from the elements "shama" (to hear or listen) and "El" (God). It first appeared in medieval England during the 12th century as a result of the Norman conquest, when many Hebrew names entered the English language through Norman French.
The earliest recorded use of the spelling Sammye dates back to the late 15th century in English parish records. It was likely influenced by the French spelling "Sammuel" and the Middle English "Sammi". Over time, the "ye" ending became a common diminutive form in English given names.
One of the earliest notable bearers of the name was Sammye Bate (c.1490-1559), an English Protestant reformer and chaplain to King Edward VI of England. He was imprisoned during the reign of Queen Mary I for his religious beliefs.
Another early bearer was Sammye Daniell (1563-1619), an English lutenist, composer and singer who published several collections of lute songs and ayres during the Elizabethan era.
In the 17th century, Sammye Butler (1612-1680) was an English philosopher and author who wrote treatises on metaphysics and logic. He served as secretary to several English aristocrats.
During the 18th century, Sammye Richardson (1689-1761) was an influential English writer and printer, best known for his novels "Pamela" and "Clarissa". He is considered one of the earliest pioneers of the modern novel form.
In the 19th century, Sammye Morse (1791-1872) was an American painter and inventor who contributed to the invention of the telegraph and Morse code. He was a prestigious professor at New York University.
People
Sammye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sammye as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sammye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sammye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 276 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sammye going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,241,864 US residents.
Is Sammye a common name?
We classify Sammye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 723 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sammye most popular?
The single biggest year for Sammye was 1947, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sammye is about 75 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sammye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 481 people with the name Sammye, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,195 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Sammye in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Sammye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sammye leans strongly female. 460 people counted with this name were female (94.1%), compared with 29 male bearers (5.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Sammye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sammye is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Sammye most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sammye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.5% (416 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Sammye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sammye a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sammye in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Sammye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sammye in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Sammye can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Sammye?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.