Samantha may be Aramaic for "listener", or possibly from a Hebrew root meaning "name". Or it may be a feminine form of
Samuel (or, I think, possibly
Samson in some cases), formed by attaching
Sam- to the Greek word
anthos "flower". According to
A Dictionary of First Names, by the Oxford University Press,
Samantha was probably first used in the 18th century, and was a purely American coinage originating from the southern states.
Miranda
"...his fingers trailing over your belly, your thighs quacking..." — From a The Lord of the Rings crapfic
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks.