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.
Number of speakers: 249 people. Source: respondents of the 2020 Census who indicated their proficiency. Number of respondents who indicated it to be their native language – 276 people. Population (2020 Census): 1550 people. Seriously endangered — there are more speakers (from two hundred up to a thousand), but they are mainly from the older generation. The middle generation can understand it, but cannot use it communicate with each other. There are virtually no children with any command of the language. Such situation can continue for a long time. Yet, children would still be unable to speak the language. Its spheres of use: hunting/fishing, domestic sphere for older generation, communications with linguists. The total number of speakers can vary from several dozens to several hundreds.