Farrah
Feminine · “Arabic "joy”
Farrah is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 12,156 girls against 7 boys since 1880.
Farrah sits on two roads at once: an Arabic word for joy, carried for centuries from Morocco to Malaysia, and an English surname of the Farrar family. In American use it arrived through television, when the actress Farrah Fawcett made the double-r spelling recognizable overnight, and it has held on quietly ever since — familiar to nearly everyone, encountered by very few.
How old is the name Farrah?
Farrah first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Farrah alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 12,000 people named Farrah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Farrah most popular?
Farrah peaked in 1977, reaching #177 nationally. Today it ranks #1326, 1,149 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Farrah appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From farah (Arabic: joy) to Farrah
The story of Farrah
The Arabic farah — joy, gladness — has been a personal name across the Arabic-speaking world for many generations, and traveled with Islam into Persian, Urdu, Turkish and Malay usage, most often written Farah. Quite separately, English records hold Farrah as a family name of the Farrar and Farrer group, from the Old French word for an ironworker. The double-r spelling took hold as a girl's first name in the United States after the actress Farrah Fawcett became a household name, and it has kept a steady presence in American records since, without ever surging again. Today the two lines coexist: Farrah reaches some families as an Arabic name of joy and others as an English surname turned first name.
Meaningscholars disagree
Arabic "joy, gladness" — or, by the surname route, "ironworker"
As a given name in Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Malay, Farah/Farrah comes from the Arabic root f-r-h, meaning joy or gladness. The doubled-r English spelling also matches the surname Farrah, a variant of Farrar and Farrer, which descends from Old French ferrour, a smith or farrier. Both readings are genuine; which one applies depends on which family carried it.
How the name formed
- farahArabic: joy
- Farah
- Farrah
Related forms: فرح (Farah) · فرح (Farah / Farha) · Farah · Farah · Ferah · Fara
Pronouncing Farrah
FAIR-uh
The common American pronunciation rhymes with Sarah. In Arabic and in many families of Arabic, Urdu or Malay background it is closer to FA-rah, with two clean short vowels and a light tap on the r. Both are correct for the name; it helps to decide which one your family will use.
Nicknames for Farrah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1976 — Farrah Fawcett in Charlie's Angels
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 19771,515 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #177reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- −20.4%168 in 2025, from 211
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.
Farrah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- فرح (Farah) in Arabic — transliteration
- فرح (Farah / Farha) in Urdu — transliteration
- Farah in Persian — transliteration
- Farah in Malay/Indonesian — same name
- Ferah in Turkish — related form
- Fara in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Farrahs among us
people named Farrah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,567 born in 2025 was named Farrah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Farrah
- #1326
- Farrah on the 2025 chart
- #637
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Farrah went to 168 girls in 2025, but Farah, Fara and Pharah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 344, which makes it the 637th most-given girls’ name of the year — 689 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,672 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,567 for Farrah 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 Sonja test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Farrah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sonja climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sonja's path sketches the road Farrah is walking now.
Farrah 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
Where Farrah is headed
Farrah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Farrah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Farrah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, six letters, and no silent parts — most English speakers read it correctly at first sight.
- Works in both English- and Arabic-speaking settings, where Farah is a long-established name.
- Widely recognizable thanks to one famous bearer, yet a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Shares its rhythm and ending with Sarah and Nora, so it fits comfortably alongside familiar names.
- Farrah, Farah and Fara all circulate, so expect to spell it aloud fairly often — and to see the single-r version come back on forms.
- The FAIR-uh and FA-rah pronunciations both have real communities behind them. Neither is wrong, but she may hear it said two different ways depending on the room.
- For older generations the name still points firmly to one American actress. That association has faded with time rather than sharpened, and younger people mostly meet the name fresh.
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What they receive
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Farrah
Feminine · #1326 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Farrahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,000 people named Farrah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Farrah?
- Farrah is the most-used spelling in US records — 168 of the 344 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Farah, Fara and Pharah.
- How popular is the name Farrah in 2025?
- Farrah ranks #1326 among US girl names in 2025, with 168 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Farrah?
- About 1 in every 9,567 US girls born in 2025 was named Farrah — 168 in all.
- Will my child share the name Farrah with classmates?
- Farrah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Farrah's chart?
- Farrah climbed after 1976 — Farrah Fawcett in Charlie's Angels.
Ranked beside Farrah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dina#1326 · Madden#1326 · Madisyn#1326 · Jhene#1326 · Cara#1326 · Safiya#1326 · Janie#1326 · Emberlyn#1318
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Farrah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Farrah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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