Samantha
What does the name Samantha mean?
The meaning of the name “Samantha” is: “The Listener; Listens well to a message from God”.
Additional information: The name Samantha is most commonly thought to be a female version of the popular male name “Samuel”. There is no mention of the name before the 19th century when it started being used in the USA as a name of baby girls. The name Samuel is from Aramaic origins, but it’s widely thought that the change to Samantha was made because the Greek suffix -antha which is added to the end of “Sam” means “flower”, something that is usually associated with femininity. The name Samantha can mean “listener”.
Because this name is derived from another very popular male name, there are variations of it used all around the world. One of the most common variations of the name Samantha is the Hispanic-Italian version, “Samanta”. Girls named Samantha usually have nicknames like Sam, Sammie, Sammy, Mantha, or Ammy. Common misspellings of the name are “Samatha”, “Samanatha”, or “Sammantha”.
Samantha as a name first reached the top 1000 baby girl’s name list in 1880 after the publishing of a novel featuring a strong female character by this name. It stayed in the top 1000 until 1902 and only reappeared for a few years in 1958 and 1959. After that the name was largely unused until the 1960s when it’s thought to have been brought to people’s attention because of the TV show Bewitched, whose main character went by the name of Samantha Stephens. Since the 1960s it has never been out of the top 500, soaring in popularity especially in 2010 when it was the 15th most popular name for baby girls in the US, which is also the most popular it has ever been. In 2014, Samantha was the 33rd most popular name in the US, 75th in Australia, and 64th in Canada.
There are a large number of famous people named Samantha, including these: Samantha Arsenault the Olympic swimmer from the USA; Samantha Morton an English actress; Samantha Harris an American actress; Samantha Fox a pop singer and Samantha Bond, who played Miss Moneypenny in James Bond films that starred Pierce Brosnan.
Because this name is derived from another very popular male name, there are variations of it used all around the world. One of the most common variations of the name Samantha is the Hispanic-Italian version, “Samanta”. Girls named Samantha usually have nicknames like Sam, Sammie, Sammy, Mantha, or Ammy. Common misspellings of the name are “Samatha”, “Samanatha”, or “Sammantha”.
Samantha as a name first reached the top 1000 baby girl’s name list in 1880 after the publishing of a novel featuring a strong female character by this name. It stayed in the top 1000 until 1902 and only reappeared for a few years in 1958 and 1959. After that the name was largely unused until the 1960s when it’s thought to have been brought to people’s attention because of the TV show Bewitched, whose main character went by the name of Samantha Stephens. Since the 1960s it has never been out of the top 500, soaring in popularity especially in 2010 when it was the 15th most popular name for baby girls in the US, which is also the most popular it has ever been. In 2014, Samantha was the 33rd most popular name in the US, 75th in Australia, and 64th in Canada.
There are a large number of famous people named Samantha, including these: Samantha Arsenault the Olympic swimmer from the USA; Samantha Morton an English actress; Samantha Harris an American actress; Samantha Fox a pop singer and Samantha Bond, who played Miss Moneypenny in James Bond films that starred Pierce Brosnan.
Categories: American Names, Aramaic Names, Australian Names, Canadian Names, English Names, Jewish Names, New Zealand Names, Popular Names
Used in: English speaking countries
Gender: Girl Names
Origins: Aramaic
Starts with: S
