Pharah
An Arabic feminine name meaning "to set something apart" or "distinction".
Name Census estimates that about 102 living Americans carry the first name Pharah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Pharah today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Pharah births was 2018 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Pharah. 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
102
~ 1 in 3,360,337 Americans
Peak year
2018
16 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,810
Tracked since 2007
Popularity
Pharah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Pharah from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 59 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Pharah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Pharah 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 Pharah 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 Pharah
The name Pharah has its origins in ancient Egyptian culture, dating back to around 3100 BC. It is derived from the Egyptian word "pr", which means "house" or "palace", and was often used as a prefix to denote royalty or nobility. The name was commonly given to Egyptian princesses and queens.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Pharah can be found in the Pyramid Texts, a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary inscriptions dating back to the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2181 BC). These texts mention a princess named Pharah who was the daughter of a pharaoh.
In the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BC), the name Pharah gained popularity among the Egyptian elite. One notable figure from this period was Pharah, the daughter of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, who ruled from around 1859 to 1813 BC.
During the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BC), the name Pharah continued to be used by members of the royal family. A famous example is Pharah, the daughter of Pharaoh Ramesses II, who is believed to have lived around 1279-1213 BC.
The name Pharah also appears in various religious texts and inscriptions from ancient Egypt, such as the Book of the Dead, a collection of funerary texts that served as a guide for the deceased in the afterlife.
Outside of Egypt, the name Pharah was also used in ancient Nubia, a civilization located in what is now modern-day Sudan. One notable figure was Queen Pharah of Kush, who ruled around 170-160 BC and is known for her military conquests and expansion of the Kushite Empire.
In more recent history, the name Pharah has been used by several notable individuals. One example is Pharah Daoud, an Egyptian writer and journalist who lived from 1924 to 2005 and was known for her work on women's rights and social issues.
Another prominent figure was Pharah Al-Ghayati, a Yemeni politician and activist who was born in 1948 and played a significant role in the Yemeni revolution of 2011.
Overall, the name Pharah has a rich history rooted in ancient Egyptian culture and has been carried on by notable figures throughout various eras and regions.
People
Pharah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Pharah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Pharah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Pharah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 102 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Pharah 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 3,360,337 US residents.
Is Pharah a common name?
We classify Pharah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 103 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Pharah most popular?
The single biggest year for Pharah was 2018, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Pharah is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Pharah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Pharah 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.
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.