Sami

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled สาม in TH Thailand, Samu in ES Spain and Сами in UZ Uzbekistan.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 28 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Sami is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Finnish given name144K records spelled Sami20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, India, Sweden

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Sämi, Sämï, Şãmï, Sàmi, Sãmì

• French given name143K records spelled Sami66 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, Belgium, United States

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Sàmi, Sâmî, Sâmi, Sãmî, Sämï

• English given name136K records spelled Sami109 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, India, Netherlands

  Languages: English, German, Western Frisian

  Also written Sämi, Şami, Saemi, Samí, Sämï

• Hindi given name89K records spelled Sami15 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Pakistan, United States, Türkiye

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Şami, Samï, Sãmi, Sâmi, Şāmį

• a separate given name44K records spelled Sami12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Pakistan, Türkiye

  Also written Sāmī, Sämi, Samî, Śamī, Sámi

• Spanish given name33K records spelled Sami68 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, United States, Mexico, Colombia

  Also written Sämï, Samí, Samï, Şami, Sämi

• Indonesian given name16K records spelled Sami14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Morocco, Spain, Indonesia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Şami, Sami', Sämï, Şâmï, Sämî

• Hindi given name16K records spelled Sami147 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Bangladesh, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hindi, English, Telugu

  Also written Swami, Swamy, Svami, Shami, สวามิ

64 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Sami is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A member of an indigenous Finno-Ugric people of Lapland.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Turkish, Semite

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Turkish, Yüksek, yüce.

  as a word·TDK Kişi Adları Sözlüğü (official Turkish given-name dictionary)

• In Swedish, Sami har flera ursprung. Dels är det ett arabiskt namn med betydelsen ’upphöjd’, dels är det en finsk form av → Samuel. Sami var ett modenamn i Finland på 1970-talet. Även i Sverige användes namnet under 1800-talet ibland som en kortform av → Samuel. En känd namnbärare är den svenske författaren Sami Said (f. 1979)

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In Arabic, eminent, exalted, high-minded, sublime

  as a name·A Dictionary of Muslim Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

XK ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search) — 109 years between 1914–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Süleyman Demirelb. 1924TRnot in their usual name9th President of the Republic of Turkey (1924-2015)
• Sami Freyb. 1937FRFrench actor
• Sami Bouajilab. 1966FRFrench actor
• Sami Al-Jaberb. 1972SAformer Saudi Arabian footballer and manager
• Sami Samirb. 1972ILIsraeli actor
• Sami Hyypiäb. 1973FIFinnish footballer and manager (born 1973)
• William Sami Étienne Grigahcineb. 1986FRFrench record producer (born 1986)
• Sami Allaguib. 1986DETunisian association football player
• Sami Khedirab. 1987DEGerman association football player
• Sami Gayleb. 1996USAmerican child actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,139 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Sami?

We estimate roughly 175 thousand people bear Sami (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Sami have the most bearers?

Sami is most frequently recorded in Türkiye, where it is most often spelled sami.

Where is Sami most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Sami is densest in Finland — about 1 in 202 people — even though Türkiye holds more of our records for it.

How common is Sami compared with other names?

In Türkiye, Sami is the 192nd most common given name of 294,597 given names recorded there.

Is Sami a male or female name?

Sami is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Sami mean?

Recorded meaning: ‘Elevated’, ‘sublime’.