The name İlkadım refers to Atatürk's arrival in Samsun via sea in the ship the Bandirma in order to start the Turkish War of Independence on 19 May 1919.

During the early Hellenistic age there was a colony named Amisos (in Greek Αμισός) founded by the colonialists from Miletus.

With a law in 2008, it became one of the 4 central districts of Samsun by including the lower level municipalities of Gazi and Yeşilkent.

[6][7] At the 2013 Turkish local government reorganisation, the rural part of the district was integrated into the municipality, the villages becoming neighbourhoods.

With the growth of the region, commercial activities in the center have declined and much of the middle class of Samsun has moved to newer and more modern neighborhoods.

The ten most populous neighborhoods in the district are respectively; Fevzi Çakmak, Kışla, Kazım Karabekir, Derebahçe, Adalet, Bahçelievler, Kadıköy, Karasamsun, Kadifekale and Ilyasköy.