Samella
Feminine
Samella puts a familiar ending on a man's short form, which is one of the oldest ways American families built a daughter's name out of a father's. The most consequential bearer of it spent a career insisting that a body of art nobody was collecting was worth a catalog.
How old is the name Samella?
Samella first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Samella alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 300 people named Samella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Samella most popular?
Samella peaked in 1910, reaching #1421 nationally. See the whole 1910 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Samella
A woman born in New Orleans took a doctorate in fine arts and art history at Ohio State and was, as far as the record shows, the first African American woman to do so. She then spent six decades building the field she had been trained in and largely excluded from: teaching at Black colleges in the South and later in California, writing the survey text that put African American artists into university syllabuses, founding a museum and a journal devoted to the work because the existing institutions were not collecting it, and continuing to paint and make prints the whole time. Her argument was administrative as much as aesthetic — that without catalogs, archives and a journal of record, a body of work simply does not exist as far as scholarship is concerned. She was still working in her nineties.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source is documented. The front is the familiar form of Samuel, whose Hebrew meaning is recorded; the ending is a diminutive that reached English through Italian and French names and then detached itself and became free. Joined, they produce a name with no etymology of its own.
Pronouncing Samella
suh-MELL-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The first syllable is reduced, which is why some records spell it with an e instead of an a.
Nicknames for Samella
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 191825 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1421reached in 1910
- Change vs 1988
- −14.3%6 in 1994, from 7
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.
Samellas among us
people named Samella are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Samella sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Three syllables with middle stress is the most comfortable rhythm English offers.
- Sam and Ella both detach cleanly and are complete names.
- It is rare without containing anything a reader has to be taught.
- Samela, Samuella and Sumella are all recorded and the spelling will need giving.
- The two syllables at the end are also a bacterium's name, and someone will make the joke.
- Only the front half has a documented meaning, and the compound has none.
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Samella
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Samellas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Samella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Samella in 2025?
- Samella is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Samella with classmates?
- Samella will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Samella? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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