Samaria
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "watchman" or "guard".
Name Census estimates that about 4,312 living Americans carry the first name Samaria. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Samaria today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Samaria births was 2007 (241 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Samaria. 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 Samaria with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.3K
~ 1 in 79,488 Americans
Peak year
2007
241 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,719
Tracked since 1952
Census
Samaria in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,377 people with the first name Samaria, which placed it at #5,171 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
#5,171
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,377 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Samaria
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samaria is Black at 68.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and White (5.2%). 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 Samaria 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 Samaria at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.5% · 2,314
- Hispanic or Latino19.2% · 648
- White5.2% · 175
- Two or more races5.1% · 173
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 43
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 24
Popularity
Samaria: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Samaria from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,775 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Samaria 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 Samaria during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Samarias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. Texas, Florida, Georgia recorded the most babies named Samaria, while Wisconsin, Connecticut, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 111 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Samaria
The name Samaria has its origins in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the central part of the ancient Land of Israel. The name is derived from the Hebrew word "Shomron," which means "watch mountain" or "guard."
Samaria was one of the most important regions in ancient Israel and played a significant role in biblical history. The capital city of the northern Kingdom of Israel was located in Samaria, and the region is mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament. In the Book of Kings, Samaria is described as the place where the prophet Elijah performed many miracles and confronted the wicked King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Samaria can be found in the Book of Jeremiah, where the prophet laments the destruction of Samaria by the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE. The name also appears in the New Testament, where Jesus is said to have passed through Samaria during his travels.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Samaria. One of the most famous was Samaria the Asidian (c. 110 BCE), a Jewish rebel leader who fought against the Seleucid Empire in ancient Judea. Another was Samaria of Gaza (c. 300 CE), a Christian martyr who was executed for her faith during the Roman persecutions.
In the Middle Ages, Samaria of Arles (c. 1198-1268) was a French Benedictine abbess and mystic who wrote several influential works on spirituality. During the Renaissance, Samaria of Mantua (1440-1547) was an Italian Jewish scholar and poet who wrote extensively on Jewish philosophy and theology.
In more recent times, Samaria Rice (born 1977) is an American activist and the mother of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was tragically killed by police in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2014.
People
Samaria + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Samaria 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
Samaria: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Samaria?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,312 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Samaria 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 79,488 US residents.
Is Samaria a common name?
We classify Samaria as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,406 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Samaria most popular?
The single biggest year for Samaria was 2007, when 241 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Samaria is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Samaria in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,377 people with the name Samaria, or 1.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,171 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 Samaria 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 Samaria?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samaria appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,376 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Samaria?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samaria is Black at 68.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and White (5.2%). 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 Samaria most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Samaria in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.5% (2,314 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 Samaria in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Samaria a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Samaria 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 Samaria still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Samaria 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 Samaria 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 are named Samaria?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.