Samaira
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "beautiful" or "blossom-like".
Name Census estimates that about 1,553 living Americans carry the first name Samaira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Samaira today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Samaira births was 2020 (120 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Samaira. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Samaira with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Samaira is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 220,705 Americans
Peak year
2020
120 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,225
Tracked since 1993
Census
Samaira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,044 people with the first name Samaira, which placed it at #12,061 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#12,061
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,044 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
68.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Samaira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samaira is Asian/Pacific Islander at 68.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Hispanic (10.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Samaira described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Samaira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander68.0% · 710
- Black or African American10.8% · 113
- Hispanic or Latino10.6% · 111
- White5.0% · 52
- Two or more races4.5% · 47
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 11
Popularity
Samaira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Samaira from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 788 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Samaira remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Samaira by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Samaira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Samairas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Samaira, while Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 53 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Samaira
The name Samaira is believed to have its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that dates back to the second millennium BC. It is thought to be derived from the Sanskrit word "samara," which means battle or war. In Hindu mythology, Samara was also the name of a legendary warrior princess known for her bravery and martial skills.
While the name Samaira is not found in ancient Hindu scriptures or texts, its linguistic roots can be traced back to ancient India and the Sanskrit language. The earliest recorded examples of the name date back to the late 20th century, when it began gaining popularity as a given name in parts of South Asia and among the Indian diaspora around the world.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Samaira was Samaira Mehta, an Indian entrepreneur and businesswoman born in the late 1970s. She founded Coder's Closet, a successful technology company based in Silicon Valley.
Another notable figure with the name is Samaira Nazir, a Pakistani-American singer and songwriter born in the late 1980s. She gained recognition for her fusion of traditional South Asian music with contemporary pop and electronic styles.
In the world of sports, Samaira Rajput is a former Indian tennis player who competed professionally in the 1990s and early 2000s. She won several singles and doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit during her career.
Samaira Khan is a British-Pakistani writer and journalist born in the late 20th century. She has written extensively on issues related to identity, culture, and gender, and her works have been published in various international publications.
Samaira Sandhu is an Indian-American actress and model who has appeared in several Bollywood films and television shows. She was born in the late 1980s and has gained recognition for her work in both Indian and American entertainment industries.
People
Samaira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Samaira as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Samaira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Samaira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,553 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Samaira going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 220,705 US residents.
Is Samaira a common name?
We classify Samaira as "Rare". It ranks above 92.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,566 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Samaira most popular?
The single biggest year for Samaira was 2020, when 120 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Samaira is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Samaira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,044 people with the name Samaira, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,061 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Samaira in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Samaira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samaira appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,048 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Samaira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samaira is Asian/Pacific Islander at 68.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Hispanic (10.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Samaira most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Samaira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.0% (710 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Samaira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Samaira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Samaira in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Samaira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Samaira in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Samaira can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Samaira?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.