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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

UnisexOrigin: ArabicIn Israel: steady

SamarIn Hebrew: סמר · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

Samar (Hebrew: סמר) is a unisex name of Arabic origin. 7,889 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 22 boys and ranked #457. Its peak year was 1976, with 298 babies.

People in Israel
7,889
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
22
rank #457
Peak year
1976
298 babies
USA, 2025
60
rank #2,304

Writing and saying Samar

In Hebrew letters the name is סמר, read right to left. Samar is the Latin spelling recorded in Wikidata; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms.

We have no sourced English explanation of this name yet, so we do not guess one. The Hebrew page has our Hebrew notes when there are any.

Samar by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Samar: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Samar in English-speaking countries

Samar in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202560#2,3042022 (92)
United Kingdom202518#1,5392014 (28)
England and Wales202518#1,4672014 (28)
British Columbia202311#2912019 (11)
Alberta202511#4152025 (11)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Samar has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Samar

How do you write Samar in Hebrew?

Samar is written סמר in Hebrew. Hebrew is read right to left.

How many people in Israel are named Samar?

7,889 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name סמר: 3,463 women and 4,426 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Samar a boy's or a girl's name?

Both. In Israel 44% of the people named סמר are women and 56% are men, so we count it as unisex (our threshold: at least 20% of the less common sex).

Is Samar used outside Israel?

The name Samar appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 60 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,304), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 18 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.