Samra
An Arabic feminine name meaning "brown-skinned" or "night conversationist".
Name Census estimates that about 421 living Americans carry the first name Samra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Samra today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Samra births was 2003 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Samra. 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 Samra with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
421
~ 1 in 814,143 Americans
Peak year
2003
22 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#17,202
Tracked since 1946
Census
Samra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,002 people with the first name Samra, which placed it at #12,418 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
#12,418
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,002 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Samra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samra is White at 47.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (32.0%) and Black (13.6%). 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 Samra 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 Samra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.5% · 476
- Asian and Pacific Islander32.0% · 321
- Black or African American13.6% · 136
- Two or more races4.0% · 40
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Samra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Samra from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 132 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Samra 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 Samra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Samras live
Origin
Meaning and history of Samra
The name Samra has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, dating back to the 7th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic word "samara," which means "fruit" or "fruitful." The name is associated with fertility, abundance, and prosperity.
In the early Islamic era, Samra was a relatively common name among Arab women, particularly in the regions of the Arabian Peninsula, Levant, and North Africa. It was often given to newborn girls as a symbol of hope for a prosperous and fruitful life.
While the name itself does not appear to be directly mentioned in religious scriptures or ancient texts, its linguistic roots can be traced back to the Quranic Arabic language and the cultural traditions of the Islamic world.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Samra dates back to the 8th century CE, when a woman named Samra bint Abi Nasr was a renowned poet and scholar in the court of the Abbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid, in Baghdad.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Samra:
1. Samra al-Qurashi (c. 630-670 CE), a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the earliest Muslim women scholars.
2. Samra bint Yahya al-Mawsili (c. 830-900 CE), an influential Arab musician and singer during the Abbasid Caliphate.
3. Samra Younis (1912-1995), a Palestinian writer and activist who advocated for women's rights and education.
4. Samra Saeed (born 1989), a Jordanian entrepreneur and founder of the technology company, Soulforce.
5. Samra Habis (born 1986), a Syrian-Canadian visual artist known for her work exploring themes of displacement and identity.
These examples illustrate the enduring presence of the name Samra across different regions and eras, reflecting its cultural significance and connection to the Arabic language and heritage.
People
Samra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Samra 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
Samra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Samra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 421 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Samra 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 814,143 US residents.
Is Samra a common name?
We classify Samra as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 453 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Samra most popular?
The single biggest year for Samra was 2003, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Samra 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 Samra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,002 people with the name Samra, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,418 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 Samra 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 Samra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Samra appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,003 people counted with this name, 99.0% 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 Samra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Samra is White at 47.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (32.0%) and Black (13.6%). 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 Samra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Samra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.5% (476 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 Samra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Samra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Samra 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 Samra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Samra 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 Samra 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 have Samra as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.