Samira

Samira (also spelled Samirah, Sameera, and Sameerah /sæˈmiːrə/, Persian: سميرا‎‎ Arabic: سميرة‎‎ Sanskrit: समीरा) is a female given name which has its various origins in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic as well as being common to other Semitic languages.

In Persian, Samira is the first part of Semiramis's name (/sɛˈmɪrəməs/ Assyrian: ܫܲܡܝܼܪܵܡ, Greek: Σεμίραμις, Armenian: Շամիրամ ) who was a Persian princess, a Babylonian warrior, and the legendary wife of King Ninus who succeeded him to the throne of Assyria. Nearly every stupendous work of antiquity by the Euphrates or in Iran seems to have ultimately been ascribed to her, including the Behistun Inscription of Darius. Herodotus ascribes to her the artificial banks that confined the Euphrates and knows her name as borne by a gate of Babylon. However, Diodorus stresses that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built long after Semiramis.

The spelling of the Sanskrit-derived name can change depending on the language, as in the Bengali version Somira. Samirah is also a common Arabic name from the root s-m-r relating to the masdar tasāmur (Arabic: تسامر‎‎) ultimately meaning she who is of pleasant company. The masculine version of this name is Samir (Arabic: سمير‎‎).