Serra
Feminine · “Latin serra”
A sierra is a saw. The Spanish and Italian word for a mountain range is the word for the tool, applied because a jagged ridge on the horizon looks like a saw blade held up against the sky. Sierra Nevada is the snowy saw.
How old is the name Serra?
Serra first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Serra alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 800 people named Serra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Serra most popular?
Serra peaked in 1996, reaching #3429 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 6,028 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From serra to Serra
The story of Serra
The metaphor is old and it is not confined to one language. Latin serra is a saw, and serrated still means toothed like one. Spanish sierra and Italian and Portuguese serra took the word for the tool and applied it to a ridgeline, which is why so many mountain ranges in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world carry it: Sierra Nevada, the snowy range, in both Spain and California; Sierra Madre; Serra da Estrela. Sierra Leone, the lion mountains, was named by a Portuguese navigator in the fifteenth century and gave a country its name. English did not follow the metaphor and uses range, from the idea of a row, and chain, from links, both of which see the same thing differently. What all three have in common is that a mountain range is named for its outline rather than for its mass.
Meaning
Latin serra, a saw
Serra is the Italian, Catalan and Portuguese form of Latin serra, a saw, used since antiquity for a jagged mountain ridge and hence for a mountain range. It is a common surname in Italy, Catalonia and Portugal, borne among others by Junipero Serra, the Franciscan who founded the California missions. The American peak of the given name is 1996.
How the name formed
- serra
- Serra
Related forms: Serra · Sierra · Serra
Pronouncing Serra
SEH-rah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Italian rolls the doubled r and holds it longer than English does. Sierra, the Spanish form, has three syllables.
Nicknames for Serra
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
- 1967
- Most girls named
- 199633 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3429reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- +42.9%10 in 2025, from 7
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.
Serra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Serra in Italian — same name
- Sierra in Spanish — related form
- Serra in Portuguese — same name
Serras among us
people named Serra are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Serra
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Serra
- #9457
- Serra on the 2025 chart
- #900
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Serra went to 10 girls in 2025, but Sera, Serah and Cera and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 60, which makes it the 900th most-given girls’ name of the year — 8,557 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 26,788 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 160,727 for Serra 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 Vala test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Serra's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Vala climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Vala's path sketches the road Serra is walking now.
Serra 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
Serra beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Serra in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters and two syllables, easy in several languages.
- The meaning is concrete and the metaphor is vivid.
- It is a genuine surname across southern Europe.
- Sierra is far commoner in American use.
- It reads as a surname to Italian and Spanish speakers.
- It is easily confused with Sarah and Sierra in speech.
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What they receive
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Serra
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Serras 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 Serra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Serra?
- Serra is one of 5 recorded spellings. Sera is the more common one — 20 births in 2025 against 10 for Serra.
- How popular is the name Serra in 2025?
- Serra ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Serra?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Serra — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Serra with classmates?
- Serra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Serra
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Serra? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Serra and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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