Samwise Gamgee’s surname in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is Gamgee. Samwise is Frodo Baggins’s gardener and one of his closest companions.
Sam joins Frodo when he leaves Bag End to take the One Ring away from the Shire. His loyalty becomes central to the story, especially after the Fellowship breaks and the journey to Mordor grows increasingly dangerous.
The name Gamgee has a curious real-world connection. “Gamgee” was a colloquial term for a type of cotton wool in nineteenth-century Britain, named after surgeon Joseph Sampson Gamgee’s medical dressing. Tolkien encountered the word in his youth and later used it as Sam’s family name.
Sam’s full formal name is Samwise Gamgee, while “Sam” is the usual short form. Tolkien presents him as a working-class hobbit whose courage and practical judgment repeatedly help save the quest.