Samir (also spelled Sameer) is a male name found commonly in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. In Arabic, Samir () means "holy", "jovial", "loyal", or "charming". In Albanian, it literally means "so good" but loosely "exquisite", "superb", or "perfect". Samira is the feminine spelling, also found in both languages.

People with the name

Given name

Artists and musicians

* Samir (filmmaker) (born 1955), Samir Jamal al Din/Jamal Aldin, Swiss filmmaker of Iraqi origin * Samir Badran (born 1990), Swedish television personality and singer, part of duo Samir & Viktor * Samir Chamas (1942-2024), Lebanese actor, writer and voice actor * Samir Ghanem (1937-2021), Egyptian comedian

Politicians

* Samir Allioui (born 1983), Dutch politician * Samir Frangieh (1945-2017), Lebanese politician *

Samir Geagea Samir Farid Geagea (, , also spelled Samir Ja'ja' ; born 25 October 1952) is a Lebanese politician and former militia commander who has been the leader of the Lebanese Forces Lebanese Forces, political party and Lebanese Forces (militia ...

(born 1952), Lebanese politician *

Samir Kassir Samir Kassir (; 5 May 1960 – 2 June 2005) was a Lebanese-Palestinian journalist of '' An-Nahar'' and professor of history at Saint-Joseph University, who was an advocate of democracy and prominent opponent of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. ...

(1960-2005), Lebanese politician * Samir Mouqbel (born 1939), Lebanese politician * Samir Saïed (born 1957), Tunisian politician *

Samir Sharifov Samir Rauf oghlu Sharifov (; born 7 September 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan (since 2025), former Minister of Finance of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2006-2025). Early life Sharifov was b ...

(born 1961), Azerbaijani politician * Sameer Zuberi (born 1979), Canadian politician

Sportsmen

* Samir (footballer, born 1981) (born 1981), Samir Lima de Araújo, Brazilian striker * Samir (footballer, born 1994) (born 1994), Samir Caetano de Souza Santos, Brazilian centre back * Samir (Cape Verdean footballer) (born 1988), Hélder Samir Lopes Semedo Fernandes (born 1988), forward *

Samir Ayass Samir Ahmed Ayass (, ; ; born 24 December 1990) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. Coming through the youth system, Ayass began his senior career in 2008 at hometown club PFC CSKA Sofia, CSKA S ...

(born 1990), Lebanese footballer * Samir Bannout (born 1955), Lebanese bodybuilder *

Samir Bekrić Samir Bekrić (born 20 October 1984) is a Bosnian Association football, football executive and former Football player, player who played as a midfielder. He is the current coordinator of the youth school of Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovin ...

(born 1984), Bosnian footballer * Samir Fazlagić (born 1982), Norwegian footballer * Samir Fazli (born 1991), Macedonian footballer * Samir Hadji (born 1989), Moroccan footballer * Samir Handanovič (born 1984), Slovenian footballer *

Samir Karabašić Samir Karabašić (born December 12, 1966) is a Bosnian slalom canoer who competed in the mid-1990s. He finished 41st in the K-1 event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capi ...

(born 1966), Bosnian canoeist *

Samir Mammadov Samir Mammadov (; born May 15, 1988) is a boxer from Azerbaijan, who won the silver medal in the men's flyweight division (– 51 kg) at the 2006 European Championships in Bulgaria and bronze at the 2007 World Championships. Career At ...

(born 1988), Azerbaijani boxer * Samir Merzić (born 1984), Bosnian footballer * Samir Nasri (born 1987), French

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

* Samir Mohamed (born 2003), Egyptian footballer * Semir Slomić (born 1988), Bosnian footballer * Semir Tuce (born 1964), Bosnian footballer * Samir Ujkani (born 1988), Albanian footballer * Samir Ziani (born 1990), French boxer

Others

* Samir El-Khadem (born 1942), Lebanese former Commander of the Lebanese Naval Forces * Samir Khader, Iraqi journalist * Samir Mehanović, British film director * Samir Naji Al Hasan Moqbel (born 1977), Yemeni guantanamo detainee * Samir Naqqash (1938-2004), Israeli writer *

Semir Zeki Semir Zeki FMedSci Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (born 8 November 1940) is a British and French Neuroscientist, neurobiologist who has specialised in studying the primate visual brain and more recently the neural correlates of affective stat ...

(born 1940), British neuroscientist

Fictional characters

Samir Duran/Emil Narud, a character in the ''StarCraft'' series

Nickname

* Ajam Boujarari Mohammed (born 1961), Moroccan football manager known as Samir

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samir Arabic-language masculine given names Masculine given names Bosniak masculine given names Iranian masculine given names Azerbaijani masculine given names