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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

SarahIn Hebrew: שרה · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: שָׂרָהRomanization: sará

Sarah (Hebrew: שרה) is a girl's name of biblical origin. 65,466 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 1,254 girls and ranked #4. Its peak year was 2017, with 1,321 babies.

People in Israel
65,466
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
1,254
rank #4
Peak year
2017
1,321 babies
USA, 2025
2,710
rank #90

Writing and saying Sarah

In Hebrew letters the name is שרה, read right to left. Sarah is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "sará" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a female given name, equivalent to English Sarah
  • Sarah (the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac in the Bible)
From Proto-Semitic *śarār (“to rule”). Cognate with Akkadian 𒊩𒈗 (šarratum, “queen”) and Arabic سرر (“to bring joy and delight”).

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Sarah by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Sarah: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Sarah in English-speaking countries

Sarah in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States20252,710#901982 (28,483)
United Kingdom2025420#1291997 (3,324)
England and Wales2025371#1311996 (3,111)
Scotland202529#1491990 (775)
Northern Ireland202520#1061997 (240)
Ireland202578#661987 (1,024)
British Columbia202330#931986 (446)
Alberta202559#491986 (415)
Quebec202581#651994 (652)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Sarah has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Sarah

How do you write Sarah in Hebrew?

Sarah is written שרה in Hebrew (with vowel points: שָׂרָה). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "sará".

How many people in Israel are named Sarah?

65,466 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name שרה: 65,456 women and 10 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Sarah a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 100.0% of the people named שרה are women.

What does the name Sarah mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a female given name, equivalent to English Sarah" Etymology: From Proto-Semitic *śarār (“to rule”). Cognate with Akkadian 𒊩𒈗 (šarratum, “queen”) and Arabic سرر (“to bring joy and delight”).

Is Sarah used outside Israel?

The name Sarah appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 2,710 girls were given it in 2025 (#90), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 420 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.