Zarah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "blooming flower" or "bright as a flower".
Name Census estimates that about 2,766 living Americans carry the first name Zarah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zarah today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zarah births was 2022 (198 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zarah. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Zarah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Zarah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 123,917 Americans
Peak year
2022
198 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,391
Tracked since 1968
Census
Zarah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,037 people with the first name Zarah, which placed it at #7,485 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
#7,485
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,037 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
29.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zarah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zarah is White at 29.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.9%). 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 Zarah 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 Zarah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White29.0% · 591
- Black or African American23.6% · 480
- Asian and Pacific Islander18.9% · 386
- Hispanic or Latino18.8% · 383
- Two or more races9.0% · 183
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 14
Popularity
Zarah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zarah from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,107 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zarah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zarah 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 Zarah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zarahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Zarah, while South Carolina, Missouri, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 74 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zarah
The name Zarah is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name Zerah, which means "rising" or "shining forth." It is a variation of the name Zara, which has similar roots.
The name Zarah can be traced back to the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically in the Book of Genesis. Zerah was one of the twin sons of Judah and Tamar, and he is mentioned as the ancestor of several prominent families in the tribe of Judah.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Zarah comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back to the 3rd century BCE. In these ancient texts, the name is spelled slightly differently as "Zrh."
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Zarah. One of the earliest was Zarah ben Judah, the son of Judah and Tamar, who lived around 1700 BCE according to biblical chronology.
Another significant figure was Zarah ben Shimi, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 3rd century CE and was a disciple of Rabbi Yochanan. He is mentioned in the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism.
In the 16th century, there was Zarah Ghassemi, a Persian poet and calligrapher who was renowned for her mastery of the art of calligraphy and her beautiful verses.
Moving forward in time, Zarah Leander (1907-1981) was a Swedish actress and singer who rose to fame in the 1930s and 1940s. She was a celebrated performer in both films and on stage.
More recently, Zarah Sultana (born 1994) is a British politician who has served as a Member of Parliament for Coventry South since 2019, representing the Labour Party.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have carried the name Zarah, each leaving their mark in various fields and cultures.
People
Zarah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zarah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zarah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zarah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,766 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zarah 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 123,917 US residents.
Is Zarah a common name?
We classify Zarah as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,804 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zarah most popular?
The single biggest year for Zarah was 2022, when 198 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zarah is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zarah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,037 people with the name Zarah, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,485 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 Zarah 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 Zarah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zarah appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,032 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Zarah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zarah is White at 29.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.9%). 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 Zarah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zarah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 29.0% (591 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 Zarah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zarah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zarah 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 Zarah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zarah 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 Zarah 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 Zarah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.