Samson

Samson comes from the Hebrew name שִׁמְשׁוֹן (Shimshon), from שֶׁמֶשׁ (shemesh), meaning “sun.” In the Old Testament, Samson was a hero whose extraordinary strength was granted by God, but after Delilah betrayed him and cut his hair, he was captured by the Philistines, blinded, and brought to their temple; in a final display of strength, he pulled down the temple’s pillars on himself and his captors. The name was known among the Normans through the Welsh bishop Saint Samson, who founded monasteries in Brittany and Normandy in the 6th century, though in his case it may have been a translation of his original Celtic name. Introduced to England by the Normans, Samson was common there in the Middle Ages and is now most common in Africa, especially in countries with a British colonial past.

Samson rose from #522 to #477 for boys between 2024 and 2025. That year also produced its highest recorded birth count, at 639.