Karah
Karah was last recorded in 2024, when 9 babies were given it; 3,274 Americans have been recorded with it between 1970 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,210 Americans named Karah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 19 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Karah?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #10,670, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
131 babies in 2000, the peak
Karah peaked in 2000, when 131 girls were given it, #1,415 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 9 | #10,670 | 5.6 |
| 2023 | 10 | #9,943 | 6.2 |
| 2022 | 11 | #9,335 | 6.7 |
| 2021 | 15 | #7,445 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 21 | #5,746 | 13.0 |
| 2019 | 28 | #4,834 | 16.7 |
| 2018 | 26 | #5,073 | 15.3 |
| 2017 | 37 | #4,031 | 21.4 |
| 2016 | 45 | #3,493 | 25.4 |
| 2015 | 44 | #3,561 | 24.6 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 58 | #2,951 | 32.5 |
| 2013 | 62 | #2,788 | 35.3 |
| 2012 | 55 | #3,061 | 31.2 |
| 2011 | 64 | #2,748 | 36.4 |
| 2010 | 82 | #2,324 | 46.1 |
| 2009 | 80 | #2,408 | 43.5 |
| 2008 | 98 | #2,086 | 51.8 |
| 2007 | 90 | #2,205 | 46.8 |
| 2006 | 122 | #1,713 | 64.2 |
| 2005 | 99 | #1,937 | 53.6 |
| 2004 | 106 | #1,800 | 57.7 |
| 2003 | 121 | #1,596 | 66.2 |
| 2002 | 100 | #1,796 | 55.7 |
| 2001 | 96 | #1,838 | 53.3 |
| 2000 | 131 | #1,415 | 72.1 |
| 1999 | 114 | #1,506 | 64.3 |
| 1998 | 91 | #1,744 | 51.5 |
| 1997 | 117 | #1,420 | 67.2 |
| 1996 | 86 | #1,738 | 49.1 |
| 1995 | 84 | #1,735 | 47.8 |
| 1994 | 83 | #1,757 | 46.5 |
| 1993 | 94 | #1,613 | 52.0 |
| 1992 | 97 | #1,588 | 52.6 |
| 1991 | 76 | #1,859 | 40.5 |
| 1990 | 86 | #1,706 | 45.3 |
| 1989 | 78 | #1,738 | 42.3 |
| 1988 | 80 | #1,623 | 44.9 |
| 1987 | 61 | #1,887 | 35.1 |
| 1986 | 64 | #1,790 | 37.3 |
| 1985 | 46 | #2,235 | 26.7 |
| 1984 | 61 | #1,784 | 36.2 |
| 1983 | 60 | #1,778 | 35.9 |
| 1982 | 41 | #2,392 | 24.2 |
| 1981 | 34 | #2,683 | 20.4 |
| 1980 | 37 | #2,556 | 22.3 |
| 1979 | 36 | #2,553 | 22.4 |
| 1978 | 33 | #2,592 | 21.5 |
| 1977 | 51 | #1,934 | 33.3 |
| 1976 | 21 | #3,340 | 14.3 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,168 | 6.2 |
| 1974 | 13 | #4,570 | 8.9 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,846 | 4.1 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,587 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Karah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 53 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karah, and how old are they?
3,210 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 3,274 Americans ever recorded as Karah. The median Karah alive today is 27 years old; half are between 19 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 2,937 people named Karah (2,919 women and girls, 18 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,168 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 200 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,100 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,550 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 364 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Karah born?
The states with the most babies named Karah are Texas, California and Ohio, with 54% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 300 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| California | 232 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 148 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Florida | 91 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 76 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 47 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 46 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Indiana | 41 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 41 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Tennessee | 41 | not ranked | 0.6× |
Where Karah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karah is most over-represented in Ohio: since 1970 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Karah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Karah?
Karah is a less common spelling of Kara: SSA has recorded 3,274 Karah and 102,025 Kara since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 235,861 babies since 1880, Karah is the eighth most given (1.4% of them). In 2025 none of their 680 babies recorded by SSA was a Karah (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Karah
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Karah and names like it
- Compare Karah and KaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKarah peaked in 2000.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karah since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Karah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Karah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.