The Sample Name: Records, Origin and Blazon

Sharing the Sample name is not the same as sharing a crest; arms were granted to individual families.

Sample by the numbers

What can public data say about the Sample family name? Quite a lot. About 11,471 people in the United States were recorded as Sample in 2010, placing it 3,150 on the national list. It sits among the 5,000 most common last names in the country.

No reliable dictionary entry explains Sample, so any origin we give a client is traced from their own ancestors. Local archives often hold baptisms and marriages that never reached online indexes. Names that sound alike, such as Semple, are easily confused in old records.

Want more than a summary? See the Sample family name pack.