Samaria comes from the ancient Hebrew place name for the biblical city and region of Samaria.
Samaria begins as a place-name before it becomes a personal one. The ancient city and region name comes through Greek and Aramaic from Hebrew Shomeron, the hill said in 1 Kings to have been bought by King Omri from a man named Shemer. Because of that biblical history, the name carries layers at once: geography, monarchy, prophecy, exile, and the long afterlife of the Samaritan tradition.
In Christian memory it also echoes the parable of the Good Samaritan, so even people who do not know the ancient kingdom often hear in Samaria a note of compassion and moral seriousness. As a given name, Samaria is much newer and softer in feeling than its stern biblical ancestry might suggest. It belongs to the modern family of place-names turned personal names, yet it keeps a distinctly scriptural aura that separates it from purely fashionable geography names.
Over time it has come to sound lyrical and feminine in English, with the ending making it feel related to Maria or Amaria. That shift is part of its appeal: an ancient kingdom name, once associated with contested history and theology, becomes in contemporary use something melodic, spiritual, and quietly grand.