Carah
Feminine · “dear one”
A silent h at the end of a name does nothing to the sound and a great deal to the look. Sarah has one and Sara does not; Hannah has one and Hanna does not; and in each case the letter is a signal that the name has been thought about. Carah borrows that convention for a name that has never traditionally carried it, which places it precisely between Cara and Sarah.
How old is the name Carah?
Carah first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Carah alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 900 people named Carah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carah most popular?
Carah peaked in 1999, reaching #3313 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 11,629 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From carus to Carah
The story of Carah
Cara entered English-language naming in the twentieth century from Italian, and Kara arrived alongside it from a different direction — Scandinavian and Greek both supply one. The h-ending belongs to a broader American habit of adding a final h to short women's names, borrowed from the Hebrew names that legitimately carry one. Carah appears in the record from 1969 with a peak in 1999, and the h in it is doing exactly the work a family wants it to do: marking the name as chosen rather than defaulted.
Meaningscholars disagree
dear one, or friend
Cara is the Italian and Spanish word for dear, from the Latin carus, and it is also the Irish word for a friend — two unrelated languages arriving at the same sound and a similar warmth. If this spelling is instead a version of Sarah or Kara, other histories apply. The h at the end carries nothing at all.
How the name formed
- carus
- Cara
- Carah
Related forms: Cara · Cara
Pronouncing Carah
KAIR-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some families say KAR-uh with a flatter first vowel, following the Italian; both are heard. The final h is silent in every version.
Nicknames for Carah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 200039 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3313reached in 1999
- Change vs 2020
- 0.0%5 in 2025, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Carah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cara in Italian — related form
- Cara in Irish — related form
Carahs among us
people named Carah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Carah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carah
- #14942
- Carah on the 2025 chart
- #591
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carah went to 5 girls in 2025, but Kara and Cara are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 399, which makes it the 591st most-given girls’ name of the year — 14,351 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,028 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 321,453 for Carah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ragen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ragen climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ragen's path sketches the road Carah is walking now.
Carah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Carah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both possible origins are warm and neither is embarrassing.
- Five letters, two syllables, and easy in any accent.
- The Italian and Irish coincidence is a genuinely pleasant thing to be able to mention.
- Cara and Kara are both far commoner and will be written instead.
- The h is silent and will be dropped by people writing quickly.
- The first vowel is unsettled, so the name arrives two ways.
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What they receive
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Carah
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Carah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carah?
- Carah is one of 3 recorded spellings. Kara is the more common one — 226 births in 2025 against 5 for Carah.
- How popular is the name Carah in 2025?
- Carah ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carah?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Carah — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carah with classmates?
- Carah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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