The main name of the language is Kildin Saami. The name used by native speakers: samlinč, sampelaš . The name used in official records and the Constitution: Saami. The name used previously: Lopar.

Kildin speakers call their own language kiillt saaʹmkiiʹll [Kildin Saami language]. The first General Population Census of the Russian Empire of 1897 featured the ethnonym of Lopar and the glossonym of Lopar language, while the following ones, Saami and Saami language respectively. The Soviet research tradition and even the more recent Russian studies considered the Saami idioms to be a single Saami language with numerous very distant dialects. Some Russian researchers still use the old terminology.

Based on the data provided by the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), there is only 1 Babinksy Saami speaker still alive today . During the All-Russian Population Censuses, there was never any distinction between different language variants of Saami, which is why the data concerning the size of the ethnic group and the languages spoken contains only information about Saami and Saami language in general. Thus, based on the 2020 All-Russian Population Census, the total number of Saami in the Russian Federation is 1550 people, including 690 men and 860 women. Of this total, 1370 people (632 men and 738 women) live on their traditional territory (Murmansk Oblast), based on the data of October 1, 2021.

In 2022, the Institute of Linguistics RAS attributed Skolt Saami the vitality status of 1B(R) . Such status is granted to the so-called dormant languages, where there are no more regular communication, no intergenerational transmission, and the number of speakers varies between 1 and 40 people. The additional R in the classification is used to characterize the state of Skolt Saami only within Russia. The language can be considered extinct due to extensive areas of settlement and the fact that the region is divided between different countries.

The language is known as Yokanga-Sami (Saami), Yokanga Sami, Terek Sami; European Ter Saami. These linguonyms are derived from the name of the Yokanga River or the Tersky Сoast of the White Sea, respectively. The word used by the native speakers is saam’ kill ‘Saami language’, ethnic self-name sam’m’l’a. The official name used in government documents or the Constitution: Saami (саамский). Names used previously (exonyms): Lapp language, Lappish, Lopari/Loparski language.