Samora
Feminine
Samora is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 631 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Samora is a Portuguese and African name best known from a Mozambican independence leader, and behind it stands Zamora, a Spanish city whose own name is disputed.
How old is the name Samora?
Samora first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Samora is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Samora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Samora most popular?
Samora peaked in 2025, reaching #3517 nationally. Today it ranks #3517, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Samora
Ours, offered as ours. Samora reached most of the world through one man: the first president of independent Mozambique, whose surname it was. Names travel that way often in Africa and the Caribbean — a leader's surname becomes a given name across a continent within a generation. Behind the surname is a Spanish city with a genuinely unsolved name, argued over by Arabic, Basque and Celtic scholarship for a century. Neither fact is a meaning, and both are worth having.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No settled derivation. The Spanish city of Zamora, from which the surname comes, has a contested name — Arabic, Basque and Celtic origins have all been proposed. The Portuguese surname Samora descends from it. Whether the modern given name draws on the surname or the place is not documented.
Pronouncing Samora
sah-MOR-ah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Every letter is sounded.
Nicknames for Samora
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
- 1977
- Most girls named
- 202543 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3517reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +38.7%43 in 2025, from 31
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.
Samora in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Samora in Portuguese — same name
- Zamora in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Texas, Georgia.
Samoras among us
people named Samora are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 37,378 born in 2025 was named Samora
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Samora
- #3517
- Samora on the 2025 chart
- #912
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Samora went to 43 girls in 2025, but Samorah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 48, which makes it the 912th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,605 places above the chart.
- Samora43
- Samorah5
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 37,378 for Samora 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 Amarilis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Samora's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Amarilis climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Amarilis's path sketches the road Samora is walking now.
Samora 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 Samora is headed
Samora should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Samora beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Samora in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sam is available immediately as an entirely ordinary short form.
- Open vowels make it easy to say in most languages.
- It carries a real and recent history that many families choose it for.
- It is a surname in its best-known use, and a man's, which shapes first assumptions.
- Samora, Zamora and Samara are close enough to be confused.
- There is no documented meaning, and the city behind it is itself unexplained.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Samora to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Samora? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Samora
Feminine · #3517 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Samoras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Samora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Samora?
- Samora is the most-used spelling in US records — 43 of the 48 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Samorah.
- How popular is the name Samora in 2025?
- Samora ranks #3517 among US girl names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Samora?
- About 1 in every 37,378 US girls born in 2025 was named Samora — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Samora with classmates?
- Samora will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Samora
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maida#3517 · Amada#3517 · Afton#3517 · Allura#3517 · Jaina#3517 · Hallee#3517 · Katara#3517 · Joella#3517
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Samora? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Samora and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle