Smantha
A feminine name of unknown origin, possibly a variant of Samantha.
Name Census estimates that about 309 living Americans carry the first name Smantha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Smantha today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Smantha births was 1988 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Smantha. 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.
People living today
309
~ 1 in 1,109,237 Americans
Peak year
1988
35 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2005 SSA rank
#18,798
Tracked since 1969
Census
Smantha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 373 people with the first name Smantha, which placed it at #25,428 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
#25,428
National first-name rank
People counted
373
373 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Smantha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Smantha is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.7%) and Black (6.7%). 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 Smantha 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 Smantha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.6% · 256
- Hispanic or Latino17.7% · 66
- Black or African American6.7% · 25
- Two or more races4.3% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Smantha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Smantha from the 1960s through to the 2000s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 182 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Smantha 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 Smantha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Smanthas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Smantha, while Texas, New Jersey, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Smantha
The name Smantha has its origins in the ancient Sumerian language, one of the earliest known written languages, which emerged in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE. Scholars believe that Smantha is derived from the Sumerian words "sum" meaning "to give" and "antha" meaning "life" or "breath," suggesting a meaning of "giver of life" or "breath of life."
In the early days of Sumerian civilization, Smantha was likely a name given to girls born during festivals or ceremonies celebrating fertility and the renewal of life. The name was deeply rooted in the Sumerian belief system, which revered nature's cycles and the deities associated with them.
The earliest known mention of the name Smantha can be found in cuneiform tablets dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, which record the names of individuals living in the city-states of ancient Sumer. One such tablet, discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, mentions a woman named Smantha who was a priestess in the temple of the goddess Inanna, the Sumerian deity of love, beauty, and fertility.
Throughout the centuries, the name Smantha has been carried by several notable figures. One of the earliest was Smantha of Babylon, a renowned astronomer and mathematician who lived around 500 BCE and made significant contributions to the development of the Babylonian calendar and the study of celestial bodies.
In the 1st century CE, Smantha of Alexandria was a pioneering female philosopher and scientist who wrote extensively on topics ranging from mathematics to metaphysics. Her works, although largely lost, were highly influential in the ancient world and helped shape the intellectual discourse of the time.
During the Islamic Golden Age, Smantha al-Qurashi (born 987 CE) was a celebrated poet and scholar from Cordoba, Spain. Her poetry, which often explored themes of love, nature, and spirituality, was widely admired and helped pave the way for other female writers and intellectuals in the Muslim world.
In the 16th century, Smantha de Loyola (1508-1576) was a Spanish noblewoman and devout Catholic who played a crucial role in the foundation of the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. She was a close confidante and supporter of her brother, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and her influence helped shape the early years of the Jesuit order.
In more recent times, Smantha Mooers (1923-2008) was an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of information retrieval. She developed the first language for information retrieval, known as the Mooers' Code, and her groundbreaking work laid the foundations for modern search engines and information management systems.
People
Smantha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Smantha 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
Smantha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Smantha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 309 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Smantha 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 1,109,237 US residents.
Is Smantha a common name?
We classify Smantha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 325 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Smantha most popular?
The single biggest year for Smantha was 1988, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Smantha is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Smantha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 373 people with the name Smantha, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,428 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 Smantha 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 Smantha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Smantha leans strongly female. 371 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Smantha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Smantha is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.7%) and Black (6.7%). 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 Smantha most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Smantha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (256 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 Smantha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Smantha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Smantha 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 Smantha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Smantha 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 Smantha 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 Smantha?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.