The meaning of the name Samantha

The name Samantha appeared in the US in the 18th century but does not have a clear origin. An educated guess was that it was a feminization of the name Samuel by adding 'anthos' to it, a Greek word meaning "flowering". Leslie Dunkling, who wrote the Everyman’s Dictionary of First Names, is convinced of this origin as he has found several other invented names from the period ending in antha, such as Iantha, Armantha, Salantha and Pantha. 

More recently it’s been hypothesized as an English form of the Dutch Sijmentje, a feminization of Sijmen which is a form of the Germanic Sigismund. The argument is that the early Dutch settlers to New England could have brought it over. 

Not much has been written about Samantha until recently. It was considered unusual even in the 19th century and didn’t make it into name books until after the 1970s. The witch Samantha Stephens on Bewitched started the Samantha trend in 1964 and it spread in popularity in the US, Canada, UK and Australia.

Cleveland Kent Evans, past president of the American Name Society and author of several name books, suggested in a comment on behindthename.com that Samantha could be a form of Semanthe. Semanthe first appeared in the 1637 play “Aglaura” by English playwright John Suckling. The play is set in ancient Persia but does not appear to be based on historical fact. Semanthe could have been invented by Suckling to sound vaguely Greek. The name does not have a historical basis. This name did enter the English pool of classical names used in literature though and is a good contender for the origin of Samantha.

Semanthe was reused for characters in several plays written and performed in London, England. Semanthe was used in the 1682 play “The Loyal Brother; Or, the Persian Prince” by Thomas Southerne, the 1690 play “The Treacherous Brothers” by George Powell and the 1699 play “Friendship Improved, or the Female Warrior” by Charles Hopkins. Each play had a cast of characters with mostly non-historical Greek sounding names. Nicholas Rowe included a woman named Semanthe in his 1705 play Ulysses. Rowe is notable for being appointed Poet Laureate by George I and for editing and publishing William Shakespeare's plays.

The June 13, 1712 edition of the Spectator, a widely read British periodical that ran daily for almost 2 years, used Semanthe in an article arguing for people to pursue activities that lie within their strengths given to them by Nature. It was the style to discuss current issues of morals using classical references and names. Other names used in the same way in the article were Caelia, Iras, Cleanthes and Valerio.

In 1758 the French conversation plays of Madame de Maintenon, the second wife of King Louis XIV of France, were published and then translated into English. Each play is a discussion between women who were given a variety of French names. When translated into English, Semanthe was used as one of the English names along with other romantic and classical sounding names such as Melliora and Cleomelia.

A 1764 novel titled “Cleanthes and Semanthe” used Semanthe as a character name, along with other romantic names like Lucinda. Lucinda, an invention of Cerventes for his 1605 novel Don Quiote would go on to become more common during the early 1800s in the US.

Each literary example has Semanthe being used for a new character who needed a classical sounding name. The first example of the Samantha spelling in print is in Mary Barber's 1735 book “Poems on Several Occasions”. It was a popular book with a forward by Johnathan Swift. Barber was an Irish poet in Swift's circle. She was considered a ‘domestic poet’, notable for being a house wife and writing about her children, but also writing commentary on gender and social issues at the time. Barber is using the name in reference to someone well known for her beauty but I’m not sure to which literary Samantha (or more likely Semanthe) she is referring. Rowe’s Semanthe character from Ulysses seems to be the likely candidate as his plays had numerous editions published and he was the most notable playwright who used it during Barber's time. 

Mary Barber's poem from her 1735 book "Poems on Several Occasions", oldest found use of the Samantha spelling in print

The Semanthe spelling was consistent in print before and after Barber's use so the shift to Samantha may have happened as the name was used by real people.

There were parents in both England and the American colonies who named their daughter Semanthe but it only seemed to have caught on in the colonies. An early example of the name was a woman named Semanthe Dewey, born in 1749 in Westfield, Massachusetts. She named her daughter after herself, Semanthe Brush, who was born in 1772 in Bennington, Vermont.

The tombstone of Semanthe Brush (born Dewey) who died in 1789 in Bennington Vermont.

Over in England in Barnstaple, Devon, a woman named Semanthe Page was married in 1774. She was born in 1745.

Record of the marriage of John Blaney and Semanthe Page in 1774 from the "Devon Bishop's Transcripts, 1558-1887"

Samantha Hatch was born in 1768 in Tolland, Connecticut and died in 1849. Her tombstone reads Samantha but was recorded as Semantha in the 1840 US census.

The tombstone of Samantha Hatch, wife of Stephen Hunt, who died in Tolland, Connecticut in 1849.

Semantha Hunt recorded as the head of her family in the 1840 US census, her husband Stephen having died in 1836.

The 1840 US census only lists heads of households and tends to only record the names of widowed or single women. It has 23 women named Samantha, 7 women named Semantha and no women named Semanthe. The 1850 US census recorded the names of all members of a household. There were 5,834 people named Samantha, 948 named Semantha and 32 named Semanthe. 

The shift towards the -a ending seems to have been faster than the Sam- beginning. A closer look at individuals may show examples of Samanthas being named in honour of Samuels, influencing the spelling shift towards Sam-. A more diligent researcher might be able to find contemporary examples of a Samantha named in honour of a Samuel to support this theory.

What does the name Samantha mean?

Name books will boil name meanings down to a single origin with a known etymological meaning. As Samantha was associated with Samuel they would share the same origin. Samuel's meaning is given as either "name of God", from the Hebrew 'Shemu'el', or "God has heard" from the Hebrew 'Shama'el'. This has resulted in the meaning of Samantha being given as "listener". If Samantha is instead a Greek inspired named created in the 1600s by an English playwright, it would lean instead on the Greek interpretation of the name components. 

The 'anthe' part could still mean 'flower', while the 'sem' part could be inspired by the classical names Semele or Semiramis. In Greek mythology Semele is the mother of Dionysus in one of his origin stories. She appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a work in circulation when Suckling invented Semanthe, and Suckling name dropped Ovid in other poems. Semele is hypothesized to be of Phrygian origin meaning "earth", but that's her whole name meaning, not just the Sem- part. A fanciful new name meaning could be "earth flower". Looking up the possible etymology of Semiramis' name yields more options like "dove", "thunder", and "red" which would all make for exciting name meanings. 

I am happy to stop at simply: Samantha is a form of Semanthe, a name invented by John Suckling possibly modelled on the classical name Semele or Semiramis with the Greek suffix 'anthe' meaning "flower". 

References

Barber, M., & Swift, J. (1735). Poems on Several Occasions.

Campbell, M. (2024). User Comments for the name Samantha. Behind the Name. 

                Behindthename.com https://www.behindthename.com/name/samantha/comments

Campbell, M. (2024). User-submitted name Samanthe - Behind the Name. Behindthename.com. https://www.behindthename.com/name/samanthe/submitted?id=456789

Joseph, A., & Sir, R. (2024). The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series. Gutenberg.org. https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12030/pg12030-images.html#section404

Maintenon, M. D. (1758) The Ladies Monitor or Instructions for the Fair Sex, Written in French by the Celebrated Madam de Maintenon, for the Use of the Young Ladies of St. Cyr’s and Now First Translated into English by Mr. Rollos.

Name of the Week: Samantha. (2016). British Baby Names. 

https://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2016/02/samantha.html

‌Semanthe Dewey Brush (1749-1789) - Find a Grave... (2020). Findagrave.com.

            https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22439957/semanthe_brush

Samantha Hatch Hunt (1768-1849) - Find a Grave... (2024). Findagrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35993982/samantha-hunt

Suckling, S. J. (1874). The Poems, Plays, and Other Remains of Sir John Suckling.

US Census data from FamilySearch • Free Family Trees and Genealogy Archives. https://familysearch.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loyal_Brother

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Improved

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treacherous_Brothers

‌https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shammuramat