Samantha is a female given name. It may have been intended to be a female form of Samuel with the addition of the female name Anthea. It originated in the American colonial era in the 18th century, believed to be from the masculine given name Samuel and anthos, the Greek word for "flower".World Almanac, 2009 edition pp.697-698, Dr. Cleveland Kent Evans, Bellevue University.

"Same" is a Hebrew name, and means "heard of" in Aramaic or Hebrew. "Samuel" means "heard of" 'same' + the name for God, 'El'. It comes from the story of a barren woman asking God for a son.

Samantha, to Sam, is a relatively new name arising in the latter part of the 18th century. It has been a consistently popular name in English-speaking countries in the 20th and 21st centuries. It was ranked as the 12th most popular name for girls born in the United States in 2007 and had been among the top 10 most popular names for girls there between 1988 and 2006. It has been ranked among the top 100 names for American girls since 1976 and among the top 200 names for American girls since 1965. It debuted among the top 1,000 names for American girls in 474th place in 1964. It had ranked among the top 1,000 names for girls in the United States between 1880, the earliest year for which records are available, and 1902. Its popularity in the United States is generally attributed to the popularity of the character Samantha Stephens, the lead character on the 1960s television series Bewitched.

People

• Samantha Albert, a Canadian-born equestrian who represents Jamaica in international competition
• Samantha Armytage, an Australian journalist and television news reporter
• Samantha Arsenault, an American swimmer and Olympic champion
• Samantha Barks, a singer and actress from the Isle of Man
• Samantha Barning, a Dutch professional badminton player
• Samantha Béart, a British actress
• Samantha Beckinsale, an English actress
• Samantha Bee, a Canadian actress and comedian
• Samantha Bond, an English actress
• Samantha Brown, an American television host
• Samantha Browne-Walters, an American actress
• Samantha Buck, an American actress
• Aunt Samantha Bumgarner, an acclaimed country and folk music performer of the early 1900s
• Samantha Cameron, (née Sheffield), an English business executive
• Samantha Casey, an American teen beauty queen
• Lan Samantha Chang, an American writer of novels and short stories
• Samantha Cole, an American dance-pop singer/songwriter
• Samantha Cook, a Canadian actress and radio personality
• Samantha Cools, a Canadian Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer
• Samantha Cope, an American actress
• Samantha Cornish, a professional surfer from New South Wales, Australia
• Samantha David, an English journalist and novelist
• Samantha Davies, a British yachtswoman
• Samantha Dodd, a British stage and television actress
• Samantha Dorman, an American model and actress
• Samantha Dorrance, a British actor and dancer
• Samantha Downie, an Australian model
• Samantha Droke, an American actress
• Samantha Dubois, a Dutch radio presenter
• Samantha Eggar, an English actress
• Samantha Falk, a Canadian reporter
• Samantha Ferris, a Canadian actress and television reporter
• Samantha Fox, or Sam, an English former glamour model and dance-pop singer
• Samantha Fox (porn star), an American pornographic actress
• Samantha Gibbs, better known as Samantha Jade, a singer-songwriter
• Samantha Giles, a British actress
• Samantha Gillison, an American author
• Sammy Glenn is an English actress
• Samantha Hammel, an American actress, singer, theatre director, choreographer and record producer
• Samantha Harris, an American television presenter
• Samantha Hartemink, an cool kid lol
• Sam Healy, an Australian actress
• Samantha Heath, a British politician
• Samantha Holland, an English actress
• Samantha Holvey, an American beauty queen
• Samantha Howard Corbin, an American television writer and producer
• Samantha Inoue-Harte, an anime voice actress
• Samantha James, an American dance musician
• Samantha Janus, an English actress and singer
• Samantha John,a media and entertainment personality in Trinidad and Tobago
• Samantha Johnson, an American actress, filmmaker, and beauty queen
• Samantha Jones (singer), née Jean Owen, an English singer and entertainer
• Samantha Judge, a 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, an Australian association footballer
• Samantha Ketipe, a Sri Lankan-born Italian cricketer
• Samantha Lam, a Chinese-Canadian equestrian
• Samantha Lane, an Australian television personality and sports reporter
• Samantha Larson, an American mountain climber
• Samantha Leigh Martin, a former child actor from England
• Susan Jane Dillingham, also known as Samantha Dillingham or her stage name Samantha Lewes, an American actress
• Samantha Lewis, a former teenage actress
• Samantha McLenithan, president of the twilight fanclub.
• Samantha Morton, an English actress
• Samantha Schonegg, an American cake decorator