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Samir

#643 in 2025Boys' name

Entertaining, through سَمِير

Samir has been given to 11,163 babies in the U.S. since 1957. In 2025 it ranked #643 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 488 recorded.

Babies named Samir, 2025

1 in 7,640

Samir over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Samir: meaning, origin, and history

Entertaining, through سَمِير

Arabic

What Samir means

Samir belongs to the name family reached through Samir → سَمِير. Its meaning is “entertaining”.

Origin, language, and formation

Samir is used in Azerbaijani, Czech, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. Its origins include Arabic.

Samir comes through Arabic ثَامِر.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Zamir and سَمِير.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Czech, Samir is pronounced [ˈsamɪr].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 11,094 boys were recorded with the name Samir between 1957 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 488 in 2023; its best national rank was #586 in 2023.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #649 in 2020 to #643 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #738 in 2015 to #643 in 2025.

In the United States, 69 girls were recorded with the name Samir between 2003 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 12 in 2003; its best national rank was #8,951 in 2003.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Samir?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 7,640
434 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 3,940
0.03% of boys
Rank, 2025
#643
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
5,296 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Samir sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 1001%
School of 5006%

Put another way: gather 5,296 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Samir. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Samirs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Samir was born before 2011 — so the typical Samir is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
28.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
72.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
11,094
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 28.3% of all recorded uses (3,142).

Is Samir rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−54
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+6
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+95
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.31×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
88.9%
Peak was 2023 (488)
Years since peak
2
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
8.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#586
2023

Spellings of Samir

Samir is not the most common spelling — Sam is, with 19.9% against Samir's 1.7%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Samir is used

Across 2016–2025, Samir was most concentrated in District of Columbia — about 1 in 610 boys, against 1 in 3,820 across all states with data. It was least common in Oklahoma (1 in 33,333).

3164 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1District of Columbia1 in 610
  2. 2Maryland1 in 2,041
  3. 3New York1 in 2,083
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 2,273
  5. 5Georgia1 in 2,381
  6. 6Virginia1 in 2,381
  7. 7South Carolina1 in 2,439
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in 2,632

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Geographically, Samir is one of the more regionally concentrated names in the country — more concentrated than 96% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Samir around the world

Where Samir ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #873
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1986–2024
    #619
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    2003–2021
    #552
    in 2021
  • France
    1950–2025
    #739
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #483
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,011
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1966–2013
    #499
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Samir

People whose public names include Samir, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Samir in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Samir. Linked forms have their own page here.

Sameer

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Samir by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#643
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 6
Best rank ever
#586
2023
Peak year
2023
488 that year
First recorded
1957
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
11,094
Count in 2025
434

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#8,951
2003
Peak year
2003
12 that year
First recorded
2003
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
69
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Samir

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SamsonSammySammieJamirSamualSamiSameerSamerSamarZamirAhmirDamirSampsonSamadAamirEmirTamirSammuelZymirJahmirTymirSamaySamyDemir

Names with a curve like Samir

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Samir, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

YosefChaimVincenzoYehudaAlessandroMustafaMarceloSamsonReyMosheFrancoYisroel

Sibling names for Samir

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Samir

Top names of 2023, Samir's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2023Boys' names starting with SMuslim Boy Names