Samantha
An eighteenth-century American formation, apparently Samuel plus the -antha of Anthea.
Popularity, 1880–2025
An American coinage of the 1700s that had nearly died out when Bewitched (1964) named its witch Samantha and relaunched it.
Samantha appears in the national records from the very first year, 1880. It has ranked among the top 100 names for American girls in every year from 1976 to 2020. It spent 19 years inside the top 10. Its biggest year was 1990, when 25,868 newborn girls received the name, ranking it No. 5 nationally. Its best ranking came in 1998, at No. 3. In 2025 it ranked No. 151 for girls. All told, 594,052 Americans have been given the name since 1880.
Related names
Other spellings on record: Sammantha (1,985), Samanatha (601) (total births since 1880)
Other names that share a story: Samuel, Sam
Explore Samantha interactively →By the decade
| Decade | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 159 | No. 352 |
| 1890s | 174 | No. 589 |
| 1900s | 135 | No. 688 |
| 1910s | 181 | No. 1171 |
| 1920s | 186 | No. 1575 |
| 1930s | 175 | No. 1580 |
| 1940s | 292 | No. 1393 |
| 1950s | 486 | No. 994 |
| 1960s | 11,027 | No. 136 |
| 1970s | 28,906 | No. 66 |
| 1980s | 121,124 | No. 6 |
| 1990s | 224,023 | No. 3 |
| 2000s | 134,313 | No. 7 |
| 2010s | 56,929 | No. 15 |
| 2020s | 14,737 | No. 90 |
Births and rank shown for girls, the sex more often given the name. The Social Security Administration omits name–year combinations with fewer than five births.
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Data: U.S. Social Security Administration national baby-name file, 1880–2025.