Popularity of the name Samantha, 1880–2025

Samantha was at its most popular in 1991, when 25,651 girls were given the name: about 1 in 73 girls born in the U.S. that year, ranking #5. In 2025, 1,973 girls were named Samantha, ranking #151. In all, Social Security counts 592,847 girls named Samantha since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 1,205 boys named Samantha.

Peak year

1991

Rank in 1991

#5

Babies in 1991

25,651

Rank in 2025

#151

Total since 1880

592,847

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name slipped from #40 in 2015 to #151 in 2025: 5,347 girls got it in 2015, and 1,973 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade was the 1990s, when 224,023 girls were named Samantha, #5 for the decade. It ranked #537 in the 1880s and #112 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 21 in 1880 (#352), 27 in 1900 (#688), 26 in 1920 (#1,626), 19 in 1940 (#1,845), 81 in 1960 (#1,212), 4,913 in 1980 (#58), 17,265 in 2000 (#7) and 2,956 in 2020 (#90).

Highs and lows

The most girls given the name in a single year was 25,868, in 1990. That is not its peak year: Social Security’s records hold more girls for 1990 than for 1991, so the name’s share of births was smaller. Its best rank in any year was #3, first reached in 1998.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 girls named Samantha, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.