Zorah
Feminine · “hornet”
Zorah is a place in the book of Judges — the town Samson came from — and it is also, by a completely separate road, close to the Arabic Zahra. It was in real American use in the nineteenth century.
How old is the name Zorah?
Zorah first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Zorah is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Zorah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zorah most popular?
Zorah peaked in 1896, reaching #1583 nationally. Today it ranks #3342, 1,759 places below that high. See the whole 1896 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Tsorah to Zorah
The story of Zorah
Zorah in the tribal territory of Dan is named several times in Judges as the home of Samson's family, and the name reached English through the King James Bible. American Protestant families of the nineteenth century used biblical place names freely as girls' names — Zorah, Salem, Beulah, Sharon — and it appears in the records of that period. Its modern use draws as often on the sound and on the Arabic Zahra as on the biblical town.
Meaningscholars disagree
hornet, or place of hornets
The biblical Zorah is generally read from a Hebrew word for a hornet or wasp, giving a place name of the kind that describes what lives there. Separately, Arabic Zahra means bright or blossoming and is a different word entirely; the two are close in English spelling and unrelated.
How the name formed
- Tsorah
- Zorah
Related forms: Tsorah · Zahra · Zora
Pronouncing Zorah
ZOR-ah
Two syllables, first stressed. Some families say zoh-RAH, following the Arabic.
Nicknames for Zorah
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
- 1896
- Most girls named
- 202350 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1583reached in 1896
- Change vs 2024
- +24.3%46 in 2025, from 37
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.
Zorah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tsorah in Hebrew — same name
- Zahra in Arabic — related form
- Zora in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Florida.
Zorahs among us
people named Zorah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 34,941 born in 2025 was named Zorah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zorah
- #3342
- Zorah on the 2025 chart
- #664
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zorah went to 46 girls in 2025, but Zora is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 310, which makes it the 664th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,678 places above the chart.
- Zora264
- Zorah46
About 1 girl in 5,185 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 34,941 for Zorah 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
Fashion outlook
Zorah 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 Zorah is headed
Zorah 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.
Zorah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zorah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It begins with Z, which keeps it distinct on any list.
- Genuine nineteenth-century American use behind it, not a recent invention.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Zora is the more common spelling and the h will be dropped for her.
- The biblical meaning is a hornet, which is not what most people expect.
- Zora, Zahra and Zorah are all close and will be confused.
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Zorah
Feminine · #3342 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zorahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Zorah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zorah?
- Zorah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Zora is the more common one — 264 births in 2025 against 46 for Zorah.
- How popular is the name Zorah in 2025?
- Zorah ranks #3342 among US girl names in 2025, with 46 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zorah?
- About 1 in every 34,941 US girls born in 2025 was named Zorah — 46 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zorah with classmates?
- Zorah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zorah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Monique#3342 · Kinleigh#3342 · Emmelyn#3342 · Zyana#3342 · Swara#3342 · Azaleah#3342 · Kamiah#3342 · Elenora#3342
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zorah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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