Samara
A feminine name of Russian origin meaning "guarded by God".
Name Census estimates that about 21,386 living Americans carry the first name Samara. It sits at #309 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Samara today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Samara births was 2018 (1,270 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Samara. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Samara with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Samara is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,027 Americans
Peak year
2018
1,270 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2023 SSA rank
#309
Tracked since 1949
Census
Samara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,525 people with the first name Samara, which placed it at #1,856 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,856
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
15,525 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
32.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Samara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samara is Hispanic at 32.5%. The next largest groups are White (32.2%) and Black (21.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Samara described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Samara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino32.5% · 5,043
- White32.2% · 4,993
- Black or African American21.7% · 3,365
- Two or more races8.3% · 1,281
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 715
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 128
Gender
Gender distribution for Samara
Out of the 21,807 babies given the name Samara since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Samara as a male name
- Ranked #13,806 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2023 (5 births)
Samara as a female name
- Ranked #309 in 2024
- 997 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (1,270 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samara appears almost entirely female. Of the 15,524 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Samara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Samara from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 6,852 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Samara remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Samara by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Samara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Samaras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Samara, while Vermont, North Dakota, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 415 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Samara
The name Samara has its origins in the Sanskrit language and is derived from the word "samara," which means "war" or "battle." It is believed to have emerged as a personal name in ancient India during the Vedic period, which spanned from around 1500 BCE to 500 BCE.
In Hindu mythology, Samara is mentioned as one of the names of the god Shiva, who is often depicted as the Destroyer or the Transformer. The name is associated with strength, courage, and the ability to overcome challenges.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Samara can be found in the epic Sanskrit poem Mahabharata, which dates back to around the 8th century BCE. In the poem, Samara is mentioned as the name of a warrior who fought in the great battle of Kurukshetra.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Samara. One of the most famous was Samara Maharaja, a powerful ruler of the Maurya Empire in ancient India, who reigned from around 305 BCE to 283 BCE.
In the 7th century CE, Samara Gupta was a celebrated king of the Gupta Empire, known for his military conquests and patronage of the arts and literature.
Another notable figure was Samara Devi, a queen of the Chola Empire in southern India, who ruled in the 11th century CE and was renowned for her political acumen and support of cultural traditions.
During the medieval period, Samara Khan was a prominent military leader and governor in the Delhi Sultanate, who played a significant role in the expansion of the empire in the 13th century.
In the 16th century, Samara Bai was a revered female warrior and military leader from the Maratha Empire, who fought against the Mughal forces and gained recognition for her bravery and leadership skills.
People
Samara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Samara as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Samara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Samara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,386 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Samara going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 16,027 US residents.
Is Samara a common name?
We classify Samara as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21,807 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Samara most popular?
The single biggest year for Samara was 2018, when 1,270 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Samara is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Samara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,525 people with the name Samara, or 5.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,856 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Samara in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Samara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samara appears almost entirely female. Of the 15,524 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Samara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samara is Hispanic at 32.5%. The next largest groups are White (32.2%) and Black (21.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Samara most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Samara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.5% (5,043 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Samara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Samara a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Samara in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Samara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Samara in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Samara can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Samara?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Samara, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.