Samarah
Samarah was given to 56 girls in 2025, #2,991 among girls’ names; 2,051 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,030 Americans named Samarah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 8 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Samarah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Samarah?
#2,991 among girls’ names, 2025
Samarah rose from #3,051 in 2015 to #2,991 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 31.4 to 34.8 per million.
120 babies in 2006, the peak
Samarah peaked in 2006, when 120 girls were given it, #1,742 among girls’ names. The 56 births of 2025 are 47% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 56 | #2,991 | 34.8 |
| 2024 | 75 | #2,430 | 46.3 |
| 2023 | 70 | #2,552 | 43.6 |
| 2022 | 77 | #2,400 | 46.9 |
| 2021 | 73 | #2,457 | 44.5 |
| 2020 | 65 | #2,624 | 40.2 |
| 2019 | 85 | #2,189 | 50.6 |
| 2018 | 84 | #2,214 | 49.4 |
| 2017 | 75 | #2,425 | 43.4 |
| 2016 | 82 | #2,320 | 46.3 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 56 | #3,051 | 31.4 |
| 2014 | 47 | #3,409 | 26.3 |
| 2013 | 72 | #2,503 | 41.0 |
| 2012 | 70 | #2,592 | 39.7 |
| 2011 | 91 | #2,119 | 51.7 |
| 2010 | 62 | #2,835 | 34.9 |
| 2009 | 104 | #2,000 | 56.6 |
| 2008 | 77 | #2,479 | 40.7 |
| 2007 | 108 | #1,923 | 56.2 |
| 2006 | 120 | #1,742 | 63.1 |
| 2005 | 104 | #1,873 | 56.3 |
| 2004 | 103 | #1,850 | 56.1 |
| 2003 | 82 | #2,139 | 44.9 |
| 2002 | 22 | #5,408 | 12.2 |
| 2001 | 34 | #3,848 | 18.9 |
| 2000 | 22 | #5,277 | 12.1 |
| 1999 | 16 | #6,422 | 9.0 |
| 1998 | 15 | #6,640 | 8.5 |
| 1997 | 16 | #6,107 | 9.2 |
| 1996 | 11 | #8,004 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 14 | #6,550 | 8.0 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,921 | 9.0 |
| 1993 | 7 | #11,517 | 3.9 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,845 | 5.9 |
| 1990 | 7 | #11,112 | 3.7 |
| 1989 | 5 | #14,030 | 2.7 |
| 1980 | 6 | #10,072 | 3.6 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,454 | 3.9 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,311 | 3.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Samarah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Samarah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 39 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Samarah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Samarah, and how old are they?
2,030 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,051 Americans ever recorded as Samarah. The median Samarah alive today is 15 years old; half are between 8 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 1,376 people named Samarah (1,371 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,638 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 16 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 70 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,040 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 911 |
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 Samarah born?
The states with the most babies named Samarah are Florida, California and Texas, with 63% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 7 | #1,849 | 1.1× |
| California | 6 | #3,044 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 6 | #3,227 | 1.0× |
| Arizona | 6 | #1,019 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,645 | 0.2× |
Where Samarah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Samarah is most over-represented in Florida: since 1972 it was given 1.1 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 Samarah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Samarah?
Samarah is a less common spelling of Samara: SSA has recorded 2,051 Samarah and 22,769 Samara since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 45,148 babies since 1880, Samarah is the fifth most given (4.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 56 of their 1,768 babies (3.2%), the seventh 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 Samarah
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 Samarah and names like it
- Compare Samarah and SamaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSamarah peaked in 2006.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Samarah since 1910.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Samarah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Samarah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.