Explore the Family Name Samaras

The meaning of Samaras

Greek: occupational name for a saddler, from samari ‘pack saddle’ (classical Greek sagmarion) + the occupational ending -as. Some characteristic forenames: Greek Dimitrios, Kostas, Andreas, Demetrios, Nikolaos, Yiannis.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Samaras in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Samaras showed a slight dip in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked as the 42,757th most popular surname, but by 2010, it had fallen slightly to the 43,206th position, marking a 1.05% decrease in rank. However, the number of individuals carrying this surname increased from 477 in 2000 to 500 in 2010, indicating a 4.82% increase in count. Nevertheless, the proportion per 100,000 people saw a decrease of 5.56%, moving from 0.18 to 0.17.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#42,757	#43,206	-1.05%
Count	477	500	4.82%
Proportion per 100k	0.18	0.17	-5.56%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Samaras

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the vast majority of people with the Samaras surname identify as White, with 94.55% in 2000 and 94% in 2010, showing a marginal decrease of 0.58%. The data also shows a significant increase in the Hispanic population with this surname from 2.10% in 2000 to 3.40% in 2010, marking a 61.90% increase. On the other hand, those identifying as two or more races decreased by 55.41% over the decade, from 3.14% in 2000 to 1.4% in 2010. There was no change in the percentage of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native, which remained at 0 for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.55%	94%	-0.58%
Hispanic	2.1%	3.4%	61.9%
Two or More Races	3.14%	1.4%	-55.41%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%