Samara
Samara was given to 957 girls in 2025, #320 among girls’ names; 22,769 Americans have been recorded with it since 1949 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 22,500 Americans named Samara and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Samara by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Samara mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Samara is “a female given name.”
Borrowed from Russian Сама́ра (Samára).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Samara?
#320 among girls’ names, 2025
Samara rose from #633 in 2015 to #320 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.25 to 0.60 per 1,000.
1,270 babies in 2018, the peak
Samara peaked in 2018, when 1,270 girls were given it, #256 among girls’ names. The 957 births of 2025 are 75% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 957 | #320 | 0.60 |
| 2024 | 998 | #309 | 0.62 |
| 2023 | 1,196 | #259 | 0.75 |
| 2022 | 1,068 | #299 | 0.65 |
| 2021 | 834 | #374 | 0.51 |
| 2020 | 886 | #351 | 0.55 |
| 2019 | 978 | #328 | 0.58 |
| 2018 | 1,270 | #256 | 0.75 |
| 2017 | 1,009 | #324 | 0.58 |
| 2016 | 670 | #475 | 0.38 |
Every recorded year (77)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 452 | #633 | 0.25 |
| 2014 | 452 | #635 | 0.25 |
| 2013 | 493 | #583 | 0.28 |
| 2012 | 516 | #569 | 0.29 |
| 2011 | 525 | #557 | 0.30 |
| 2010 | 488 | #602 | 0.27 |
| 2009 | 594 | #509 | 0.32 |
| 2008 | 629 | #500 | 0.33 |
| 2007 | 707 | #456 | 0.37 |
| 2006 | 948 | #349 | 0.50 |
| 2005 | 825 | #380 | 0.45 |
| 2004 | 857 | #365 | 0.47 |
| 2003 | 656 | #456 | 0.36 |
| 2002 | 242 | #929 | 0.13 |
| 2001 | 261 | #883 | 0.14 |
| 2000 | 248 | #888 | 0.14 |
| 1999 | 223 | #940 | 0.13 |
| 1998 | 204 | #989 | 0.12 |
| 1997 | 197 | #991 | 0.11 |
| 1996 | 170 | #1,089 | 0.10 |
| 1995 | 179 | #1,019 | 0.10 |
| 1994 | 174 | #1,050 | 0.10 |
| 1993 | 171 | #1,066 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 145 | #1,202 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 159 | #1,117 | 0.08 |
| 1990 | 150 | #1,149 | 0.08 |
| 1989 | 128 | #1,238 | 0.07 |
| 1988 | 108 | #1,331 | 0.06 |
| 1987 | 91 | #1,442 | 0.05 |
| 1986 | 104 | #1,297 | 0.06 |
| 1985 | 101 | #1,320 | 0.06 |
| 1984 | 107 | #1,223 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 100 | #1,257 | 0.06 |
| 1982 | 114 | #1,196 | 0.07 |
| 1981 | 125 | #1,112 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 104 | #1,259 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 115 | #1,159 | 0.07 |
| 1978 | 125 | #1,068 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 117 | #1,106 | 0.08 |
| 1976 | 101 | #1,149 | 0.07 |
| 1975 | 71 | #1,456 | 0.05 |
| 1974 | 74 | #1,396 | 0.05 |
| 1973 | 78 | #1,310 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 68 | #1,446 | 0.04 |
| 1971 | 89 | #1,251 | 0.05 |
| 1970 | 60 | #1,595 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 43 | #1,916 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 26 | #2,472 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 26 | #2,422 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 16 | #3,240 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 15 | #3,378 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 13 | #3,843 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 12 | #3,982 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 9 | #4,798 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 14 | #3,573 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #6,262 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 7 | #5,471 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,305 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 10 | #4,159 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,839 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 10 | #4,000 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,636 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,561 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,449 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #6,087 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,964 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,919 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Samara a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Samara has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 77 years of records.
Girls and boys named Samara: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Samara, and how old are they?
22,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 22,769 Americans ever recorded as Samara. The median Samara alive today is 14 years old; half are between 6 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 15,524 people named Samara (15,481 women and girls, 43 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 16,841 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 103 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,060 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,070 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,040 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 11,200 |
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 Samara born?
The states with the most babies named Samara are California, Texas and Florida, with 38% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 153 | #217 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 129 | #269 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 75 | #257 | 1.2× |
| New York | 60 | #281 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 38 | #287 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 38 | #218 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 35 | #303 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 28 | #402 | 0.8× |
| Arizona | 28 | #263 | 1.0× |
| Maryland | 28 | #187 | 1.2× |
Where Samara is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Samara is most over-represented in New York: since 1949 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ 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 Samara 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 45,148 babies since 1880, Samara is the most given (50% of them). In 2025 it was given to 957 of their 1,768 babies (54%), again the most given.
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 Samara
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 Samara and names like it
- Compare Samara and SamiraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSamara peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Samara since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Samara.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Samara alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.