Carrah
A feminine name likely derived from the Irish name "Cara", meaning "friend".
Name Census estimates that about 150 living Americans carry the first name Carrah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Carrah today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carrah births was 1977 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carrah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
150
~ 1 in 2,285,029 Americans
Peak year
1977
13 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2017 SSA rank
#14,495
Tracked since 1977
Census
Carrah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 227 people with the first name Carrah, which placed it at #35,437 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#35,437
National first-name rank
People counted
227
227 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carrah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carrah is White at 73.6%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Carrah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Carrah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.6% · 167
- Black or African American11.5% · 26
- Two or more races6.6% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 4
Popularity
Carrah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carrah from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 56 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carrah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Carrah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carrah
The name Carrah is believed to have originated from the Arabic language, where it is derived from the word "qarrah," which means "delight" or "joy." This name has been in use for centuries, particularly in the Middle East and among Arabic-speaking communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carrah can be traced back to the 7th century, during the Islamic Golden Age. It is mentioned in several ancient Arabic texts and literary works from that period, often used as a poetic term to describe the beauty and radiance of a beloved.
In the 10th century, a renowned Islamic scholar and philosopher, Carrah al-Zamakhshari, was born in Khwarezm (present-day Uzbekistan). He was known for his contributions to the fields of Arabic linguistics, Qur'anic exegesis, and jurisprudence.
During the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled from the 8th to the 13th century, the name Carrah gained popularity among the aristocracy and upper classes. It was often given to daughters as a symbol of joy and happiness.
In the 12th century, a notable figure named Carrah al-Din al-Qunawi was a prominent Sufi mystic and philosopher from Konya (present-day Turkey). He was a close disciple of the renowned poet and mystic, Rumi, and contributed significantly to the development of Islamic mysticism.
Another historical figure with the name Carrah was Carrah al-Malikah, a 13th-century Ayyubid princess from Syria. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her support of scholars and poets during her reign.
While the name Carrah has its roots in the Arabic language, it has also been adopted and used in other cultures and regions over time, albeit with slight variations in spelling and pronunciation.
People
Carrah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carrah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Carrah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carrah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 150 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carrah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,285,029 US residents.
Is Carrah a common name?
We classify Carrah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 155 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carrah most popular?
The single biggest year for Carrah was 1977, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carrah is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carrah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 227 people with the name Carrah, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,437 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Carrah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Carrah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carrah leans strongly female. 226 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 3 male bearers (1.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Carrah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carrah is White at 73.6%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Carrah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carrah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.6% (167 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Carrah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carrah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carrah in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Carrah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carrah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Carrah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Carrah as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Carrah, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.