Samantha
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "listener" or "heard by God".
Name Census estimates that about 569,809 living Americans carry the first name Samantha. It sits at #127 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Samantha today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Samantha births was 1990 (25,926 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Samantha. 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 Samantha with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Samantha is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,205 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
570K
~ 1 in 602 Americans
Peak year
1990
25,926 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2017 SSA rank
#127
Tracked since 1880
Census
Samantha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 517,507 people with the first name Samantha, which placed it at #81 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
#81
National first-name rank
People counted
518K
517,507 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
171.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Samantha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samantha is White at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Samantha 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 Samantha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.0% · 356,913
- Hispanic or Latino19.4% · 100,393
- Two or more races4.3% · 22,349
- Black or African American4.0% · 20,573
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 13,814
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3,465
Gender
Gender distribution for Samantha
Out of the 592,059 babies given the name Samantha since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Samantha as a male name
- Ranked #13,887 in 2017
- 5 male births in 2017
- Peak: 1989 (120 births)
Samantha as a female name
- Ranked #127 in 2024
- 2,221 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (25,868 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samantha appears almost entirely female. Of the 517,508 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Samantha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Samantha from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 224,381 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Samantha 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 Samantha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Samanthas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Samantha, while Wyoming, Vermont, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,550 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Samantha
The name Samantha is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Samuel, which means "name of God" or "heard by God." It is a feminine form of the male name Samuel, which was popularized in the Bible as the name of the prophet who anointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David.
Samantha first emerged as a distinct name in the 17th century, but it remained relatively uncommon until the late 20th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Samantha dates back to 1684, when it appeared in the records of the parish of St. James, Dukes Place, London.
In the 18th century, the name Samantha gained some popularity among English and American Puritans, who appreciated its biblical roots. One notable figure from this period was Samantha Hoskins (1671-1727), an English Quaker minister and author who wrote about her travels and ministry.
The name Samantha experienced a surge in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, partly due to its use in popular culture. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Samantha Stephens, the lead character in the television series "Bewitched" (1964-1972), played by actress Elizabeth Montgomery.
Another notable Samantha from the 20th century was Samantha Smith (1972-1985), an American schoolgirl who became a peace activist and ambassador at the age of 10. In 1983, she wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov expressing her concerns about nuclear war, which led to her being invited to visit the Soviet Union. Tragically, Samantha died in a plane crash at the age of 13.
In the literary world, Samantha Power (born 1970) is an Irish-American author, diplomat, and human rights activist. She served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 and won the Pulitzer Prize for her book "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide."
Throughout history, the name Samantha has been associated with strong, independent, and accomplished women. While its origins can be traced back to ancient Hebrew, the name has taken on new meanings and significance in various cultures and contexts over time.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Samantha
People
Samantha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Samantha 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
Samantha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Samantha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 569,809 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Samantha 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 602 US residents.
Is Samantha a common name?
We classify Samantha as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 592,059 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Samantha most popular?
The single biggest year for Samantha was 1990, when 25,926 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Samantha is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Samantha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 517,507 people with the name Samantha, or 171.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #81 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 Samantha 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 Samantha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samantha appears almost entirely female. Of the 517,508 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Samantha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samantha is White at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Samantha most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Samantha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.0% (356,913 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 Samantha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Samantha a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Samantha 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 Samantha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Samantha 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 Samantha 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 Americans are named Samantha?
Find out how many people have the name Samantha on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.