Samira
Feminine · “companion in evening conversation”
Samira comes from an Arabic root about talking late into the night — the word samar names the conversation people have after dark, when the work is done. It traveled with that root across Persian, Turkish, Balkan and East African usage, and it sits comfortably in an American mouth: three even syllables, the middle one long, sa-MEE-rah.
How old is the name Samira?
Samira first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Samira alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 8,800 people named Samira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Samira most popular?
Samira peaked in 2025, reaching #723 nationally. Today it ranks #723, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Samira appears on this list:
Works in Arabic families too:
Where it comes from
From samar (Arabic: evening talk) to Samira
The story of Samira
Samira is the feminine form of the Arabic name Samir, both built on the root s-m-r and its noun samar — the talk that happens after sunset. The name spread far beyond Arabic with Islam and with Arabic literary influence, taking hold in Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Swahili-speaking and Bosnian naming alike, so that a Samira in Sarajevo and a Samira in Cairo carry the same word. Families from all of those places brought it into the United States, which is why it turns up here in communities with little else in common. The spelling Samira is the one that settled in English, though Sameera and Samirah both appear on American documents.
Meaning
companion in evening conversation
From the Arabic root s-m-r, tied to samar, nighttime talk and storytelling. Often rendered more loosely as 'entertaining companion' or 'pleasant conversationalist'.
How the name formed
- samarArabic: evening talk
- Samīr
- Samīra
- Samira
Related forms: سميرة · سمیرا (Samira) · Samira · Sameera · Semra · Samir
Pronouncing Samira
sa-MEE-rah
Stress falls on the long middle syllable. In Arabic the final vowel is short and clipped; American speakers usually give it a fuller -ah. A minority say SAM-ih-ra, so one correction at the start of a school year is worth expecting.
Nicknames for Samira
High
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
- 1961
- Most girls named
- 2025387 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #723reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +6.3%387 in 2025, from 364
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.
Samira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- سميرة in Arabic — transliteration
- سمیرا (Samira) in Persian — same name
- Samira in Bosnian — same name
- Sameera in Urdu — spelling variant
- Semra in Turkish — related form
- Samir in Arabic (male) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Samiras among us
people named Samira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,153 born in 2025 was named Samira
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Samira
- #723
- Samira on the 2025 chart
- #521
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Samira went to 387 girls in 2025, but Samirah, Samyra and Samyrah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 493, which makes it the 521st most-given girls’ name of the year — 202 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,260 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,153 for Samira 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 Yasmeen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Samira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Yasmeen climbed just as high around 1997, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Yasmeen's path sketches the road Samira is walking now.
Samira is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Samira is headed
Samira should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Samira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Samira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged across Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Bosnian and Swahili-speaking families — the same spelling, the same sound, no translation needed.
- Spelled the way it sounds for most English speakers, with no silent letters or unusual clusters.
- Ready-made short forms already in real use: Sam, Sammy, Mira.
- A documented meaning with a clear root, which is more than many names can offer.
- Rare enough in American classrooms that it rarely needs a last initial attached.
- Sameera, Samirah and Samera all exist on American paperwork, so she will sometimes have to spell it out — and will occasionally receive mail addressed to one of the others.
- It sits close to Samara, Samantha and the masculine Samir, and gets muddled with all three by people hearing it quickly.
- The most obvious short form, Sam, is shared with a long list of other names, so it carries less of the original with it than Mira does.
- It is climbing rather than fading, which means the version of this name that feels uncommon now may feel more familiar by the time she is grown.
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What they receive
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Samira
Feminine · #723 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Samiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,800 people named Samira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Samira?
- Samira is the most-used spelling in US records — 387 of the 493 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Samirah, Samyra and Samyrah.
- How popular is the name Samira in 2025?
- Samira ranks #723 among US girl names in 2025, with 387 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Samira?
- About 1 in every 4,153 US girls born in 2025 was named Samira — 387 in all.
- Will my child share the name Samira with classmates?
- Samira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Samira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sol#722 · Bridget#724 · Gwen#725 · Theodora#725 · Keilani#727 · Ila#718 · Karsyn#718 · Remy#718
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Samira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Samira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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