The story in the numbers

590,854 girls have been named Samantha in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1990, with 25,868 births — 1.4% of all girls recorded that year.

It is falling: its share of births is 60% or less of what it was ten years ago (rank 33 → 127).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1995, and the 1990s alone account for 38%. It has spent 86 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 45 of them in the top 100 and 19 in the top 10.

It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,205 boys have also been given it, 0.20% of the total.

Rank among girls, year by year

By decade

Decade

girls named Samantha

159

174

135

181

186

175

292

486

11,029

28,913

121,126

224,020

134,310

56,922

12,746

In 1990, its biggest year

Samantha was the 5th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1990 were Jessica, Ashley, Brittany, Amanda and Samantha. See all of 1990.

Names that rose and fell with Samantha

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.