Samara
- Pronunciation
- [Sa-ma-ra]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Protected By God
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Samara
Samara has multiple proposed origins. The most credible Hebrew line connects Samara to Shomron (Samaria), the historic biblical region in the central highlands of ancient Israel — and the name was used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel from c. 880 BCE until its destruction in 722 BCE. A separate Arabic line connects Samara to a feminine form of samar meaning "evening conversation" or "night talk." A third proposed line connects Samara to the Russian city of Samara on the Volga River.
The name's overwhelming modern cultural anchor is the fictional Samara Morgan of the 2002 American horror film The Ring (and its sequels) — the supernatural antagonist who emerges from a cursed videotape. The strong horror-cinema cultural anchor has driven the name's mixed reception: some parents avoid the name due to the association, while others are drawn by the distinctive register.
Samara's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2000 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 200 since. The name has been driven primarily by African-American and Russian-American naming. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the multi-cultural etymological flexibility (Hebrew/Arabic/Russian), the soft three-syllable structure with vowel-rich rhythm, and the modern visual presence. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to multi-cultural names. The name reads as both classical-Hebrew and contemporary American. Common nicknames Sam (gender-neutral, also a popular standalone name on its own), Sami, Mara (back-end shortening, a popular standalone name), and the rare Sammy each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Samara, Sammara, and Samaria have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Samaria (Spanish/Italian), Samaire (alternate French), and the broader Samaria/Shomron family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Samara
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Samara by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2018 with 1,270 girls named Samara (girl rank #256 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #320 for girls (957 US births). That's 64 places below its 2018 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Samara Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Samara the strongest states are Rhode Island, Maryland, New Jersey.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island | #196 | 22 |
| 2 | Maryland | #221 | 240 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #224 | 352 |
| 4 | California | #232 | 1,479 |
| 5 | Texas | #238 | 1,308 |
| 6 | District of Columbia | #246 | 22 |
| 7 | New York | #247 | 667 |
| 8 | Florida | #267 | 644 |
| 9 | New Mexico | #273 | 60 |
| 10 | Arizona | #300 | 232 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | #701 | 103 |
| 2 | Missouri | #662 | 87 |
| 3 | Kentucky | #639 | 65 |
| 4 | Minnesota | #619 | 73 |
| 5 | Mississippi | #585 | 17 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | #556 | 82 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | #548 | 187 |
| 8 | Utah | #545 | 79 |
| 9 | Ohio | #542 | 184 |
| 10 | Louisiana | #526 | 91 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Samara in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samar | Conversations At Night | Female | Arabic |
Looking for names like Samara?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Samara to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Samara against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).