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 [ 2 syll. sa-muel, sam-u-el ] The boy name Samuel is pronounced as SAEMYuwL KEY. Samuel is an English, French, and German name of Hebrew origin. The name's meaning is God has heard; asked of God. The name could be derived from Shemuel (Hebrew) or Shmuel (Hebrew), of the elements 'shama' (to hear) and 'el' (God, powerful), or else as a contraction of the Hebrew 'shaul meel' (asked of God). It was borne in the Bible by the prominent 11th century BC judge and prophet who gave his name to two books of the Old Testament; his mother stated that she had Samuel because she 'asked him of the Lord'. The name has traditionally been a Jewish name; it was later widely adopted by English Puritans in the 17th century. In Scotland, it is taken as an Anglicized form of the Gaelic Somhairle. The short form Sam is found in Uncle Sam, the personification of the United States (US); the term has been used since 1812. The name Samuela (Italian) is the female form of Samuel. Samuel is a widely used name; it has 28 variants that are used in both English and other languages. Variants of Samuel used in English include Samel, Sammel, Sem (also used in Dutch and German), and Shem (also used in Yiddish). The short form Sam, the pet forms Sammie and Sammy, and the variant spelling Samual are other English forms. Foreign variants of Samuel include Kamuela (Hawaiian), Samaru (Japanese), Samko (Czech), Samo (Czech), Samouel (Greek), Samoyla (Russian), Samuele (Italian), Samuelis (Lithuanian), Samuil (Russian and Slavic), Samuli (Finnish), Samvel (Russian), Samy (Arabic and French), Sawyl (Welsh), Schmuel (Yiddish), Shemuel (Yiddish), Shmuel (Hebrew), Somhairle (Irish), and Zamiel (German). Specific foreign variants include the pet forms Sami (Finnish and Hungarian) and Samu (Hungarian). See also the related form, José Samuel (Spanish). Samuel is very popular as a baby name for boys. The name's popularity has been growing since the 1960s. Its usage peaked in 2001 with 0.715% of baby boys being given the name Samuel. It ranked at #26 then. In 2008, its usage was 0.583% and its ranking #28, and it was the most popular among all boy names in its group. In 2008, 21 times more boys were named Samuel than the next most popular name, Sam (English). Baby names that sound like Samuel include Samel (English), Sammel (English), Samouel (Greek), Shemuel (Yiddish), Sunil (Indian), Samoyla (Russian), Samual (English), Samuele (Italian), Samuil (Russian and Slavic), Samuli (Finnish), Schmuel (Yiddish), Shmuel (Hebrew), and Cemal (Arabic, English, and Turkish). Details of famous persons named Samuel: KEY: Pronunciation for Samuel: S as in "sea (S.IY)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; Y as in "yield (Y.IY.L.D)" ; UW as in "two (T.UW)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)"   |
