Karah
Feminine · “dear”
Karah carries a k at the front and an h at the back, and neither belongs to the name it comes from. The original is Italian and has a c and no h; both additions are English, and both are borrowed from other names entirely.
How old is the name Karah?
Karah first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Karah alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 3,200 people named Karah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karah most popular?
Karah peaked in 2000, reaching #1412 nationally. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
From Cara to Karah
The story of Karah
The silent final h is the interesting addition, because English does not use it. It comes from Hebrew names — Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Leah — where it represents a real letter that once had a real sound, and English readers absorbed it as a general marker of a woman's name rather than as a piece of Hebrew. Once it was loose, it began appearing on names that had never been anywhere near Hebrew: Karah, Alanah, Norah, Tamarah. The k at the front is the second borrowing, taken from the Scandinavian and German spellings of an entirely different name family.
Meaningscholars disagree
dear
If the name is the Italian one, it is an ordinary adjective meaning dear. It can also be reached from Katherine or from an unrelated Turkish word, and this spelling belongs to no single one of them.
How the name formed
- Cara
- Kara
- Karah
Related forms: Cara · Kara
Pronouncing Karah
KAR-uh
Two syllables with the weight at the front. The h is silent and changes nothing; some families use KAIR-uh, with the vowel of care.
Nicknames for Karah
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 2000131 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1412reached in 2000
- Change vs 2023
- −10.0%9 in 2024, from 10
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.
Karah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cara in Italian — related form
- Kara in Swedish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Karahs among us
people named Karah are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Karah sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Every sound in it is easy in English and the spelling follows the sound.
- It is short, clean and sits well in front of almost any surname.
- The Italian word behind it is one of the warmest meanings any name carries.
- Cara, Kara, Carah and Karah are four spellings of one sound and all will be tried.
- The silent h has to be given aloud every time and will still be dropped.
- The first vowel is genuinely unsettled between the a of car and of care.
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What they receive
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Karah
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,200 people named Karah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karah in 2025?
- Karah is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karah with classmates?
- Karah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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