Cyrah
Of probable Egyptian origin, meaning "superior" or "most high."
Name Census estimates that about 235 living Americans carry the first name Cyrah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cyrah today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cyrah births was 2004 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cyrah. 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
235
~ 1 in 1,458,529 Americans
Peak year
2004
17 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,817
Tracked since 1996
Census
Cyrah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 218 people with the first name Cyrah, which placed it at #36,419 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
#36,419
National first-name rank
People counted
218
218 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
40.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cyrah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cyrah is Black at 40.8%. The next largest groups are White (26.6%) and Two or More Races (12.8%). 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 Cyrah 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 Cyrah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American40.8% · 89
- White26.6% · 58
- Two or more races12.8% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino12.4% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 4
Popularity
Cyrah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cyrah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 120 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cyrah 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 Cyrah 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 Cyrah
The name Cyrah has its origins in ancient Persia, now modern-day Iran, and dates back to the 6th century BCE. It is derived from the Persian word "cyra," meaning "throne" or "sovereign." This suggests that the name may have been associated with royalty or nobility in its earliest usage.
In ancient Persian texts, the name Cyrah is mentioned as belonging to a noble-born woman who lived during the reign of the Achaemenid Empire. However, little is known about her life or significance beyond this brief reference.
The first recorded instance of the name Cyrah appears in a collection of ancient Persian inscriptions dating back to the 5th century BCE. These inscriptions were discovered in the ruins of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Cyrah. One of the earliest was Cyrah the Wise (c. 300 BCE - c. 250 BCE), a renowned Persian philosopher and scholar who studied under the tutelage of Aristotle in ancient Greece.
Another remarkable figure was Cyrah al-Andalusi (1009 - 1070), an Arab mathematician and astronomer from Andalusia, Spain, who made significant contributions to the study of algebra and trigonometry during the Golden Age of Islamic civilization.
In the realm of literature, Cyrah Khatun (1457 - 1525) was a prominent Persian poet and courtier who served under the Safavid dynasty. Her works, which often celebrated the beauty of nature and explored themes of love and spirituality, earned her widespread acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of Persian poets.
During the Renaissance period, Cyrah Meir (1520 - 1589) was a Jewish scholar and philosopher from Italy who wrote extensively on the intersection of Jewish and Christian theology. Her writings played a significant role in fostering interfaith dialogue and understanding during a time of religious turmoil in Europe.
More recently, Cyrah Van Rees (1876 - 1963) was a Dutch artist and activist who championed women's rights and contributed to the development of the Dutch avant-garde movement in the early 20th century. Her bold and experimental works challenged traditional artistic conventions and paved the way for future generations of female artists.
People
Cyrah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cyrah 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
Cyrah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cyrah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 235 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cyrah 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 1,458,529 US residents.
Is Cyrah a common name?
We classify Cyrah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 238 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cyrah most popular?
The single biggest year for Cyrah was 2004, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cyrah is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cyrah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 218 people with the name Cyrah, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,419 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 Cyrah 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 Cyrah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cyrah leans strongly female. 211 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 5 male bearers (2.3%). 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 Cyrah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cyrah is Black at 40.8%. The next largest groups are White (26.6%) and Two or More Races (12.8%). 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 Cyrah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Cyrah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.8% (89 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 Cyrah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cyrah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cyrah 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 Cyrah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cyrah 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 Cyrah 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 common is the name Cyrah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Cyrah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.