Samar
Samar is given to both girls and boys: 29 girls and 60 boys were given it in 2025 (#4,735 among girls’ names and #2,329 among boys’, #3,857 among all names counting both); 2,385 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,350 Americans named Samar and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 7 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Samar by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Samar mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Samar is “a male given name from Sanskrit used in India.”
Borrowed from Sanskrit समर (samara).
/ˈsɑmɑɹ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Samar?
#2,329 among boys’ names, 2025
Samar fell from #2,204 in 2015 to #2,329 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 32.3 to 35.1 per million.
117 babies in 2021, the peak
Samar peaked in 2021, when 117 babies were given it (85 boys, #1,836 among boys’ names). The 89 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 76% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 29 | #4,735 | 60 | #2,329 |
| 2024 | 27 | #5,003 | 62 | #2,309 |
| 2023 | 27 | #4,972 | 56 | #2,431 |
| 2022 | 24 | #5,436 | 92 | #1,790 |
| 2021 | 32 | #4,390 | 85 | #1,836 |
| 2020 | 22 | #5,630 | 67 | #2,110 |
| 2019 | 30 | #4,634 | 73 | #2,013 |
| 2018 | 28 | #4,865 | 76 | #1,954 |
| 2017 | 28 | #4,903 | 72 | #1,998 |
| 2016 | 31 | #4,612 | 67 | #2,106 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 29 | #4,832 | 62 | #2,204 |
| 2014 | 28 | #5,006 | 60 | #2,247 |
| 2013 | 21 | #6,208 | 46 | #2,615 |
| 2012 | 22 | #6,072 | 36 | #3,157 |
| 2011 | 15 | #8,127 | 32 | #3,416 |
| 2010 | 33 | #4,478 | 31 | #3,512 |
| 2009 | 17 | #7,625 | 17 | #5,505 |
| 2008 | 18 | #7,348 | 24 | #4,238 |
| 2007 | 16 | #8,020 | 26 | #3,977 |
| 2006 | 13 | #9,176 | 25 | #3,973 |
| 2005 | 18 | #6,761 | 37 | #2,886 |
| 2004 | 22 | #5,716 | 22 | #4,104 |
| 2003 | 27 | #4,785 | 9 | #7,710 |
| 2002 | 26 | #4,733 | 12 | #5,998 |
| 2001 | 17 | #6,569 | 16 | #4,845 |
| 2000 | 29 | #4,266 | 5 | #11,804 |
| 1999 | 20 | #5,382 | under 5 | |
| 1998 | 33 | #3,624 | 11 | #5,762 |
| 1997 | 26 | #4,218 | under 5 | |
| 1996 | 29 | #3,802 | 8 | #6,992 |
| 1995 | 21 | #4,806 | 6 | #8,681 |
| 1994 | 26 | #4,088 | 7 | #7,606 |
| 1993 | 24 | #4,347 | 6 | #8,507 |
| 1992 | 20 | #4,998 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 25 | #4,171 | 5 | #9,354 |
| 1990 | 21 | #4,650 | 7 | #7,030 |
| 1989 | 15 | #5,780 | 7 | #6,802 |
| 1988 | 16 | #5,256 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 19 | #4,433 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 18 | #4,502 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 17 | #4,604 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 20 | #3,955 | 5 | #7,126 |
| 1983 | 17 | #4,428 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 16 | #4,678 | 9 | #4,518 |
| 1981 | 22 | #3,708 | 5 | #7,087 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,477 | 6 | #6,107 |
| 1979 | 8 | #7,873 | 7 | #5,264 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,633 | 7 | #4,957 |
| 1977 | 12 | #5,458 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,935 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,991 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,872 | 6 | #5,124 |
| 1973 | under 5 | 6 | #4,974 | |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,310 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Samar a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,385 Americans recorded as Samar, 46% are girls and 54% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Samar: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Samar, and how old are they?
2,350 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,385 Americans ever recorded as Samar. The median Samar alive today is 13 years old; half are between 7 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 3,924 people named Samar (2,919 women and girls, 1,005 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,800 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 98 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 379 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 647 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,230 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Samar born?
The states with the most babies named Samar are California, Texas and New York, with 84% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 17 | #1,189 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 5 | #2,889 | 0.3× |
| New York | 5 | #1,994 | 0.5× |
| Virginia | 5 | #1,225 | 0.2× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Samar with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 18,973 babies since 1880, Samar is the third most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 89 of their 644 babies (14%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Samar
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Samar and names like it
- Compare Samar and SamirBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSamar peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Samar since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Samar: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Samar.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Samar alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.