Tarah
Tarah was given to 6 girls in 2025, #14,753 among girls’ names; 4,737 Americans have been recorded with it since 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,590 Americans named Tarah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 39 years old and half are between 32 and 44.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tarah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tarah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tarah is “a female given name.”
Compare Tara.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tarah?
#14,753 among girls’ names, 2025
Tarah fell from #6,433 in 2015 to #14,753 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 11.2 to 3.7 per million.
267 babies in 1985, the peak
Tarah peaked in 1985, when 267 girls were given it, #678 among girls’ names. The 6 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #14,753 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 9 | #11,021 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 6 | #14,996 | under 0.01 |
| 2022 | 9 | #11,149 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 5 | #17,436 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 11 | #9,476 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 13 | #8,554 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 11 | #9,750 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 16 | #7,408 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 18 | #6,877 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (61)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 20 | #6,433 | 0.01 |
| 2014 | 16 | #7,600 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 17 | #7,339 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 11 | #10,355 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 29 | #4,901 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 27 | #5,231 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 29 | #5,077 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 30 | #4,995 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 29 | #5,082 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 40 | #3,846 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 44 | #3,452 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 46 | #3,321 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 57 | #2,767 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 40 | #3,453 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 58 | #2,627 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 57 | #2,626 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 82 | #1,936 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 75 | #2,006 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 108 | #1,511 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 100 | #1,574 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 95 | #1,591 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 130 | #1,308 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 126 | #1,333 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 125 | #1,341 | 0.07 |
| 1991 | 152 | #1,156 | 0.08 |
| 1990 | 184 | #994 | 0.10 |
| 1989 | 196 | #918 | 0.11 |
| 1988 | 212 | #850 | 0.12 |
| 1987 | 196 | #872 | 0.11 |
| 1986 | 188 | #884 | 0.11 |
| 1985 | 267 | #678 | 0.16 |
| 1984 | 265 | #662 | 0.16 |
| 1983 | 262 | #660 | 0.16 |
| 1982 | 205 | #790 | 0.12 |
| 1981 | 212 | #772 | 0.13 |
| 1980 | 179 | #861 | 0.11 |
| 1979 | 117 | #1,143 | 0.07 |
| 1978 | 133 | #1,030 | 0.09 |
| 1977 | 145 | #958 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 80 | #1,352 | 0.05 |
| 1975 | 51 | #1,835 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 45 | #1,933 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 32 | #2,395 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 42 | #1,966 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 25 | #2,862 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 17 | #3,701 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 14 | #3,942 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 7 | #6,179 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #7,503 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,691 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #7,533 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tarah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tarah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 61 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Tarah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tarah, and how old are they?
4,590 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 4,737 Americans ever recorded as Tarah. The median Tarah alive today is 39 years old; half are between 32 and 44.
The 2020 Census counted 4,269 people named Tarah (4,258 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,586 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 845 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,830 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 753 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 156 |
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 Tarah born?
The states with the most babies named Tarah are California, Texas and Florida, with 38% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 473 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Texas | 311 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 202 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 200 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 194 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 160 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| New York | 153 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 149 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Missouri | 97 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Washington | 88 | not ranked | 0.9× |
Where Tarah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tarah is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1963 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 Tarah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 189,504 babies since 1880, Tarah is the second most given (2.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6 of their 359 babies (1.7%), the third most given that year.
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 Tarah
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 Tarah and names like it
- Compare Tarah and TaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sTarah peaked in 1985.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tarah since 1910.
- The top names of 1985The year the most babies were named Tarah.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Tarah alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with TMost given first.