Name Awesome

Marah

#6,727 in 2025Girls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Marah has been given to 2,365 babies in the U.S. since 1964. In 2025 it ranked #6,727 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2004, with 117 recorded.

Babies named Marah, 2025

1 in 195,000

Marah over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Marah: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Arabic and Hebrew

What Marah means

Marah has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: distinct naming traditions.

Origin, language, and formation

Marah is used in English. Its origins include Arabic and Hebrew.

Marah comes through Arabic مَرَح.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include مَرَح.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Marah is pronounced /ˈmɑːɹə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,365 girls were recorded with the name Marah between 1964 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 117 in 2004; its best national rank was #1,444 in 1991.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,775 in 2020 to #6,727 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,273 in 2015 to #6,727 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Marah?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 195,000
17 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 94,500
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#6,727
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
135,172 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Marah sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 135,172 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Marah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Marahs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Marah was born before 2000 — so the typical Marah is around 25 today.

Median birth year
2000
About 25 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
32.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
49.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,365
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 32.6% of all recorded uses (770).

Is Marah rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,857
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−952
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,454
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.50×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.5%
Peak was 2004 (117)
Years since peak
21
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,444
1991

Spellings of Marah

Marah is not the most common spelling — Mary is, with 45.7% against Marah's 0.03%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Marah is used

Across 1910–2025, Marah was most concentrated in Ohio — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 161,059 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Ohio1 in 50,000
  2. 2Florida1 in 100,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 100,000
  4. 4Indiana1 in 100,000
  5. 5Michigan1 in 100,000
  6. 6Minnesota1 in 100,000
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  8. 8Tennessee1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Marah has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Marah around the world

Where Marah ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #4,867
    in 2025
  • France
    1999–2025
    #6,606
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,256
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1973–1999
    #729
    in 1999

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Marah

People whose public names include Marah, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Marah by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#6,727
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 952
Best rank ever
#1,444
1991
Peak year
2004
117 that year
First recorded
1964
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,365
Count in 2025
17

Names similar to Marah

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MarwaMaryaMarisMarliMarynMarryMarlyMarniMartyMartiMariluMaryahMariyaMarelyMarinMaramMarlowMaritMarlinMarloMarkieMaryanKyrahMariko

Names with a curve like Marah

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Marah, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

YanetAmbriaShekinahJovanaShaylynAsyaYesicaKyanaMyiaKiahRianaMarykate

Sibling names for Marah

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Marah

Top names of 2004, Marah's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1991Girls' names starting with M