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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: internationalIn Israel: hardly given today

SamIn Hebrew: סם · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

Sam (Hebrew: סם) is a boy's name of international origin. 221 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Its peak year was 1958, with 10 babies.

People in Israel
221
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
—
not in the list
Peak year
1958
10 babies
USA, 2025
428
rank #647

Writing and saying Sam

In Hebrew letters the name is סם, read right to left. Sam is the Latin spelling recorded in Wikidata; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms.

We have no sourced English explanation of this name yet, so we do not guess one. The Hebrew page has our Hebrew notes when there are any.

Sam by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Sam: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Sam in English-speaking countries

Sam in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States2025428#6471918 (2,506)
United Kingdom2025161#3111997 (1,718)
England and Wales2025115#3631996 (1,638)
Scotland202531#1442004 (214)
Northern Ireland202515#1492006 (70)
Ireland2025106#522010 (210)
British Columbia202311#2912016 (29)
Alberta202515#3122010 (29)
Quebec202564#1082020 (95)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Sam has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Sam

How do you write Sam in Hebrew?

Sam is written סם in Hebrew. Hebrew is read right to left.

How many people in Israel are named Sam?

221 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name סם: 12 women and 209 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Sam a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 94.6% of the people named סם are men.

Is Sam used outside Israel?

The name Sam appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 428 boys were given it in 2025 (#647), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 161 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.