Humanverse

Samanatha vs Samantha

American parents have registered 594,052 Samanthas since 1880, against 601 Samanathas. Samantha is still ahead, with 1,973 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Samanatha against Samantha, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Samanatha Samantha

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Samantha has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1972, when Samanatha had 14 and Samantha had 2,227.

Side by side

  Samanatha Samantha
Total US births 601594,052
Most in one year 3425,926
Babies in 2025 under 51,973
Estimated living today 580580,000
Median age today 3630
Peak year 19871990
Best rank 2,852nd girls5th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked151st
First recorded 19651880
Girls / boys 601 / 0592,847 / 1,205

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Samanathas alive today are over 36; half the Samanthas are over 30. That is 6 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Samanatha and Samantha.