Korah
Feminine · “bald”
Korah is a rebellion. In the book of Numbers he is a Levite who challenges Moses over who may approach the holy things, and the ground opens and swallows him and his followers; the psalms are nonetheless attributed in part to the sons of Korah, who survived. It is a name with a difficult story and an interesting afterlife.
How old is the name Korah?
Korah first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Korah is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Korah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Korah most popular?
Korah peaked in 2018, reaching #3245 nationally. Today it ranks #5099, 1,854 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Qorach to Korah
The story of Korah
The Korah story is one of the sharpest confrontations in the Torah and is read as being about authority and access. What makes the name remarkable is what happens afterward: eleven psalms carry a heading naming the sons of Korah, and the Chronicler lists his descendants among the temple singers, so a family associated with a catastrophic rebellion ends up leading the music. In American records the name is now given to girls, sometimes for that story and sometimes as a spelling of Cora.
Meaningscholars disagree
bald; or ice
Hebrew Qorach is generally connected to a root meaning bald or shaven, and separately to a word for ice or frost. Neither is secure. The name is also used in modern American records as a respelling of Cora, which is Greek and unrelated.
How the name formed
- Qorach
- Korah
Related forms: קרח · Korach
Pronouncing Korah
KOR-uh
Two syllables, stress in front, the h silent. Hebrew says KOH-rakh with a throat sound at the end that English does not have.
Nicknames for Korah
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
- 1977
- Most girls named
- 201849 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3245reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- +19.0%25 in 2025, from 21
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.
Korah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- קרח in Hebrew — transliteration
- Korach in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio, Washington, Texas.
Korahs among us
people named Korah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was named Korah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Korah
- #5099
- Korah on the 2025 chart
- #89
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Korah went to 25 girls in 2025, but Cora, Kora and Korra are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 3,241, which makes it the 89th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,010 places above the chart.
and 3 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 496 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 64,291 for Korah 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 Ryane test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Korah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ryane climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ryane's path sketches the road Korah is walking now.
Korah 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 Korah is headed
Korah is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Korah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Korah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kora and Kori are ready short forms and both are complete names.
- Two syllables and five letters make it fast to write and easy to say.
- The afterlife of the biblical family, from rebellion to temple singers, is a genuinely good story.
- The biblical bearer leads a rebellion and is destroyed for it, which somebody will mention.
- Cora and Korah are said identically, so the spelling will be corrected constantly.
- Its meaning is unresolved, so answers found online will disagree.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Korah to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Korah? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Korah
Feminine · #5099 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Korahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Korah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Korah?
- Korah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Cora is the more common one — 2,428 births in 2025 against 25 for Korah.
- How popular is the name Korah in 2025?
- Korah ranks #5099 among US girl names in 2025, with 25 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Korah?
- About 1 in every 64,291 US girls born in 2025 was named Korah — 25 in all.
- Will my child share the name Korah with classmates?
- Korah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Korah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janette#5099 · Loraine#5099 · Delfina#5099 · Hali#5099 · Mecca#5099 · Zoi#5099 · Afia#5099 · Emelie#5099
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Korah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Korah and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle