Sameerah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "companion" or "entertainer".
Name Census estimates that about 449 living Americans carry the first name Sameerah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sameerah today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sameerah births was 1978 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sameerah. 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 Sameerah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
449
~ 1 in 763,373 Americans
Peak year
1978
39 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#17,199
Tracked since 1976
Census
Sameerah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 562 people with the first name Sameerah, which placed it at #19,009 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
#19,009
National first-name rank
People counted
562
562 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
50.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sameerah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sameerah is Black at 50.5%. The next largest groups are White (34.0%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Sameerah 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 Sameerah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American50.5% · 284
- White34.0% · 191
- Two or more races6.2% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 4
Popularity
Sameerah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sameerah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 117 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Sameerah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sameerah 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 Sameerah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sameerahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Sameerah, while Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 29 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sameerah
The name Sameerah originates from the Arabic language and can be traced back to the Middle East region. It is derived from the Arabic root word "samara," which means "to converge" or "to gather." This root word has its origins in the ancient Semitic languages spoken in the region.
Sameerah is believed to have been in use as a name since the early days of Islam, as it carries a positive connotation in the Arabic language. The name is often associated with qualities such as beauty, elegance, and charm.
In Islamic tradition, the name Sameerah is not explicitly mentioned in the Quran or other religious texts. However, it is considered a respectable and virtuous name within the Islamic faith due to its positive meaning and linguistic roots.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Sameerah can be found in the historical records of the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled over a vast territory spanning from modern-day Iraq to parts of North Africa and Spain between the 8th and 13th centuries. During this period, the name was popular among the elite and noble classes of the Islamic world.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Sameerah. One such figure was Sameerah bint Abi al-Qasim al-Gharnati, a renowned Andalusian poet and scholar who lived in the 11th century. She was celebrated for her literary contributions and her mastery of the Arabic language.
Another notable Sameerah was Sameerah al-Zaydi, a Syrian mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 9th century. She made significant contributions to the fields of mathematics and astronomy, and her works were widely studied and referenced by scholars of her time.
In the 13th century, Sameerah bint Ahmad al-Ghassani was a prominent figure in the medical field. She was a physician and medical writer who specialized in the treatment of eye diseases and authored several influential works on ophthalmology.
During the Ottoman Empire, Sameerah Khanum was a influential figure in the 16th century. She was a princess and the daughter of Sultan Selim II, and played a significant role in the cultural and artistic life of the Ottoman court.
In more recent times, Sameerah Luqman was a notable Egyptian writer and activist who lived from 1935 to 2014. She was known for her literary works that explored themes of social justice and women's rights in the Arab world.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Sameerah, each leaving their mark in various fields and contributing to the rich cultural tapestry of the regions where they lived and worked.
People
Sameerah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sameerah 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
Sameerah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sameerah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 449 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sameerah 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 763,373 US residents.
Is Sameerah a common name?
We classify Sameerah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 469 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sameerah most popular?
The single biggest year for Sameerah was 1978, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sameerah is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sameerah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 562 people with the name Sameerah, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,009 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 Sameerah 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 Sameerah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sameerah appears almost entirely female. Of the 556 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 Sameerah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sameerah is Black at 50.5%. The next largest groups are White (34.0%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Sameerah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Sameerah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.5% (284 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 Sameerah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sameerah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sameerah 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 Sameerah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sameerah 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 Sameerah 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 Sameerah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.