The name Samuel comes from the Hebrew name Shemu'el, which is composed of the Hebrew elements shem, meaning "name," and el, meaning "God." Therefore, it translates to "name of God." Other theories suggest that it's a combination of the Hebrew root shama, meaning "to hear," and el, translating to "God has heard." Either way, Samuel has been one of the most popular names since 1900 and is one of the few boy's names that has never ranked outside the Social Security Administration's top-100 for boy names. More recently, it has been a top-25 boy's name every year since 2012 and was the name actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner gave their son, born in 2012.
