Samantha
Pronunciation | /səˈmænθə/ sə-MAN-thə |
---|---|
Gender | Female |
Origin | |
Word/name | Hebrew |
Meaning | God heard; listener; flower[1] |
Region of origin | England / US |
Other names | |
Nickname(s) | Sam, Sammy, Sammi |
Related names | Sam, Sammy, Sami, Sammi, Sammie |
Samantha is a feminine given name. It has been recorded in England in 1633 in Newton Regis, Warwickshire, England.[2] It was also recorded in the 18th century in New England, but its etymology is unknown.[3] Speculation (without evidence) has suggested an origin from the masculine given name Samuel[4] and anthos, the Greek word for "flower".[5] A variant of this speculation is that it may have been a feminine form of Samuel with the addition of the already existing feminine name Anthea.[4]
It remained a rare name until the publication, beginning in 1873, of a series of ten books by Marietta Holley featuring the adventures of a lady called Samantha, wife of Josiah Allen.[3] This led to the rise in its popularity and its increasing ranking among the top 1,000 names for girls in the United States from 1880, the earliest year for which records are available, to 1902.[6]
It was out of fashion in the United States for majority of the first half of the 20th century, but reappeared among the top 1,000 names for girls in 1958, when it ranked in 998th position, and in 1959, when it ranked in 993rd place. It fell off the top 1,000 list once again until 1964, when it reappeared in 472nd place, and leapt another 293 places to 179th place in the ratings in 1965. The name's popularity coincided with the debut in 1964 of the television show Bewitched, which featured as the lead character a young witch named Samantha Stephens. The name has remained consistently popular in the United States since the 1960s. It ranked among the top 200 names for girls since 1965 and among the top 100 names for girls since 1976. It was among the 10 most popular names for girls born in the United States between 1988 and 2006. It ranked as the 15th most popular name for American girls born in 2009.[7]
In Sri Lanka Samantha is used as a masculine given name, being one of the forms of the name of the god Saman. This usage has no known connection with the female version.
Translations
- Arabic: سامانثا (Samantha)
- Armenian: Սամանթա (Samant'a), Սամանտա (Samanta)
- Belarusian: Саманта (Samanta)
- Bulgarian: Саманта (Samanta)
- Chinese Simplified: 萨曼莎 (Sàmànshā)
- Chinese Traditional: 薩曼莎 (Sàmànshā)
- Dutch: Samantha
- Esperanto: Samanta
- French: Samantha
- German: Samantha
- Greek: Σαμάνθα
- Gujarati: સમન્તા (Samantā)
- Hebrew: סמנתה
- Hindi: सामन्था (Sāmanthā)
- Hungarian: Szamanta
- Italian: Samanta
- Japanese: サマンサ (Samansa)
- Kannada: ಸಮಂತಾ (Samantā)
- Korean: 사만다 (Samanda)
- Latvian: Samanta
- Mongolian: Саманта (Samanta)
- Persian: سامانتا (Samanta)
- Russian: Саманта (Samanta)
- Serbian: Саманта (Samanta)
- Spanish: Samanta
- Tamil: சமந்தா (Camantā)
- Telugu: సమంతా (Samantā)
- Thai: ซาแมนต้า (Sāmænt̂ā)
- Ukrainian: Саманта (Samanta)
- Urdu: سامنتھا (Samantha)
- Yiddish: סאַמאַנטהאַ (Sʼamʼanthʼa)
Notable people
Female
- Samantha Albert, Canadian-born equestrienne who represents Jamaica in international competition
- Samantha Armytage, Australian journalist and television news reporter
- Samantha Arsenault, American swimmer and Olympic champion
- Samantha Barks, singer and actress from the Isle of Man
- Samantha Barning, Dutch professional badminton player
- Samantha Béart, British actress
- Samantha Beckinsale, English actress
- Samantha Bee, Canadian actress and comedian
- Samantha Bond, English actress
- Samantha Boscarino, American actress
- Sam Brown, English singer
- Samantha Brown, American television host
- Samantha Browne-Walters, American actress
- Samantha Buck, American actress
- Aunt Samantha Bumgarner, acclaimed country and folk music performer of the early 1900s
- Samantha Cameron (née Sheffield, born 1971), English business executive and wife of politician David Cameron
- Samantha Casey, American teen beauty queen
- Lan Samantha Chang, American writer of novels and short stories
- Samantha Cole, American dance-pop singer/songwriter
- Samantha Cook, Canadian actress and radio personality
- Samantha Cools, Canadian Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer
- Samantha Cornish, professional surfer from New South Wales, Australia
- Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut
- Samantha Davies, British yachtswoman
- Samantha Dorman, American model and actress
- Samantha Dorrance, British actor and dancer
- Samantha Downie, Australian model
- Samantha Droke, American actress
- Samantha Dubois, Dutch radio presenter
- Samantha Eggar, English actress
- Samantha Ferris, Canadian actress and television reporter
- Samantha Fox, English former glamour model and dance-pop singer
- Samantha Giancola, American television personality and actress
- Samantha Giles, British actress
- Samantha Gillison, American author
- Sammy Glenn, English actress
- Samantha Hammel, American actress, singer, theatre director, choreographer and record producer
- Samantha Harris, American television presenter
- Sam Healy, Australian actress
- Samantha Heath, British politician
- Samantha Holland, English actress
- Samantha Holvey, American beauty queen
- Samantha Howard Corbin, American television writer and producer
- Samantha Inoue-Harte, anime voice actress
- Samantha Jade, singer-songwriter also known as Samantha Gibbs
- Samantha James, American dance musician
- Samantha Janus, now Samantha Womack (born 1972), English actress and singer
- Samantha Johnson, American actress, filmmaker, and beauty queen
- Samantha Jones, née Jean Owen, English singer and entertainer
- Samantha Judge, field hockey forward from Scotland
- Samantha Juste, née Sandra Slater, the “disc girl” on the 1960s BBC television show Top of the Pops
- Samantha Kerr, Australian association footballer
- Samantha Lam, Chinese-Canadian equestrian
- Samantha Lane, Australian television personality and sports reporter
- Samantha Larson, American mountain climber
- Samantha Leigh Martin, former child actor from England
- Samantha Lewes, American actress also known as Susan Jane Dillingham and Samantha Dillingham
- Samantha Lewis, former teenage actress
- Samantha Maloney, American musician
- Samantha Mathis, American actress
- Samantha Morton, English actress
- Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
- Samantha Navarro, Uruguayan singer and composer
- Samantha Page, a newscaster on Naked News
- Samantha Peszek, American gymnast
- Samantha Power, American diplomat and academic
- Samantha Reeves, American tennis player
- Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Indian actress
- Samantha Sang, Australian pop singer
- Samantha Saint, American pornographic actress
- Samantha Smith, child peace activist and actress who died in a plane crash at age 13
- Samantha Smith (tennis), British tennis player
- Samantha Stosur, Australian tennis player
- Samantha Weinstein, Canadian actress
Male
- Samantha Fernando ((born 1985), Sri Lankan cricketer
- Samantha Ketipe (born 1974), Sri Lankan-born Italian cricketer
- Samantha de Mel (born 1965), Sri Lankan-born Italian cricketer
- Samantha Sooriyabandara, Sri Lankan army officer
- K. V. Samantha Vidyaratna, Sri Lankan politician
- Samantha Vithanage (born c. 1980), student murdered in Sri Lankan university
Fictional characters
- Samantha, character in the video game Until Dawn
- Samantha, operating system and love interest in the science-fiction film Her
- Samantha, Dave's second wife and Miles, mother in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
- Samantha, silent scorer on BBC Radio 4 I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
- Samantha Anderson, on the American TV soap opera As the World Turns
- Sami Brady, on the American soap opera Days of our Lives
- Sammy Jo Carrington, character in the American TV series Dynasty
- Samantha Carter, in the television show Stargate SG-1
- Samantha Crawford, character in the television show Maverick
- Samantha Fitzgerald, recurring character on the Australian soap opera Neighbours
- Samantha Groves, also known as Root, in the television show Person of Interest
- Sam Jones (Doctor Who), in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels
- Samantha Jones (Sex and the City), in the television show Sex and the City
- Sam McCall, on the American soap opera General Hospital
- Sam Mitchell (EastEnders), on the BBC One soap opera EastEnders
- Samantha Mulder, Fox Mulder's sister on the TV show The X-Files. Samantha was abducted by aliens before the show's start.
- Samantha Parkington, a character in the American Girl series
- Sam Puckett (iCarly), from iCarly
- Samantha Spade, in the TV series Without a Trace
- Sam Sparks, a weather news reporter and Flint's girlfriend in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movie series
- Samantha Stephens, in the TV show Bewitched
- Samantha Stewart, a character in UK TV series Foyle's War, played by Honeysuckle Weeks
- Samantha Taggart, in the TV show ER
References
- ^ http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Samantha
- ^ https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XX1C-S68
- ^ a b Withycombe, E. G. (1977). The Concise Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b "Samantha". Mike Campbell. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
- ^ World Almanac, 2009 edition pp. 697–698, Dr. Cleveland Kent Evans, Bellevue University
- ^ Social Security Administration
- ^ ssa.gov