Samarah
Feminine
Samarah stands close to three quite different things: a winged seed, a city in Iraq, and a Hebrew verb about keeping watch. None of them has been shown to be the source, and all three are worth knowing.
How old is the name Samarah?
Samarah first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Samarah alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 2,000 people named Samarah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Samarah most popular?
Samarah peaked in 2006, reaching #1734 nationally. Today it ranks #2957, 1,223 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Samarah
Our story of Samarah is about the seed, because it is the loveliest of the three and the one most people have held. A samara is the winged fruit of a maple — the thing children throw in the air to watch spin — and it is engineered: the wing is offset so the seed autorotates and travels further from the parent tree than it could fall. Whether this name comes from that word nobody has written down. But if a name is going to sit near something without descending from it, a seed built to travel is a good thing to sit near, and it costs nothing to say so honestly rather than claiming the descent.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Three candidates, none documented for this name. A samara in botany is the winged seed of a maple or ash — the one that spins as it falls — from a Latin word for the elm seed. Samarra is a city on the Tigris with a famous spiral minaret. And Hebrew shamar means to guard or keep watch, which some connect to Shomron, Samaria. The name appears in American use without a recorded derivation.
Pronouncing Samarah
suh-MAR-ah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. SAM-uh-ruh, with the stress at the front, is also heard and follows the botanical word; both circulate in American use.
Nicknames for Samarah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 2006120 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1734reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −25.3%56 in 2025, from 75
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Samarah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Samara in English — spelling variant
- Samira in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Samarahs among us
people named Samarah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 28,701 born in 2025 was named Samarah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Samarah
- #2957
- Samarah on the 2025 chart
- #310
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Samarah went to 56 girls in 2025, but Samara is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,013, which makes it the 310th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,647 places above the chart.
- Samara957
- Samarah56
About 1 girl in 1,587 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 28,701 for Samarah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jannet test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Samarah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jannet climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jannet's path sketches the road Samarah is walking now.
Samarah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Samarah is headed
Samarah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Samarah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Samarah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sam, Sammy and Mara are three ready short forms, all of them established names.
- Every sound in it is easy in English, so it is said correctly on sight.
- Three syllables that balance a short or blunt surname well.
- It has no documented origin, so any meaning offered for it is a choice among three.
- Samara is the more common spelling and this one will be corrected in writing.
- The two stress patterns both circulate, so the child will be correcting people.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Samarah
Feminine · #2957 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Samarahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Samarah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Samarah?
- Samarah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Samara is the more common one — 957 births in 2025 against 56 for Samarah.
- How popular is the name Samarah in 2025?
- Samarah ranks #2957 among US girl names in 2025, with 56 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Samarah?
- About 1 in every 28,701 US girls born in 2025 was named Samarah — 56 in all.
- Will my child share the name Samarah with classmates?
- Samarah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Samarah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Klaire#2957 · Pauline#2957 · Alea#2957 · Odelia#2957 · Rahaf#2957 · Rosabella#2957 · Kenzlee#2957 · Kalli#2957
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Samarah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Samarah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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