Though Sarah tends not to have as wide of a variation across languages as, say, Elizabeth or Katherine, there are still a number of interesting variations. There are also a number of alternative spellings in English, which I don’t mind as much as I normally do. I strongly prefer the two most common spellings, but I’m not categorically against another spelling as long as it’s not something crazy like Seighraigh, Sy’Rah, or Seyrhaheigh.
Sarah, which means “princess” in Hebrew, has been in the Top 100 in the U.S. since at least 1880, with the exception of 1954–61, when its rank ranged from #103 to #119. Frequently, it’s been near the top of the charts, and was Top 10 from 1978–2002. In 2016, it was #57.
The spelling Sara hasn’t been quite as popular, though it spent 1973–2008 in the Top 50. In 2016, it was #152. Both spellings are currently popular in Switzerland, Bosnia, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, Romania, Portugal, Norway, Poland, The Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Catalonia, Chile, Belgium, England and Wales, Canada, Austria, France, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Sarah is English, Hebrew, German, French, and Arabic, while Sara, in addition to also being used in the abovementioned languages, is found in Dutch, the Scandinavian languages, Icelandic, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Persian, the Slavic languages, Finnish, Catalan, and Greek.
The variation Sára is Hungarian, but pronounced SHAH-rah. Likewise, the nickname Sári is pronounced SHAHR-ee. Sometimes Hungarian women who immigrate to Anglophone countries have changed their names to Shari or Shara, so people won’t get confused by pronunciation. Sára is also used in Czech and Slovak, though pronounced the more familiar way.
Other forms include:
1. Sarra is Old Church Slavonic, Biblical Latin, and Biblical Greek.
2. Sarrah is an English variation.
3. Sera is an English variation, as well as a nickname for the English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, and German name Serafina (also spelt Seraphina). In Russian and Macedonian, this is one of the nicknames for Serafima.
4. Serra is an English variation.
5. Cera is another English variation.
6. Sarita is a Spanish nickname.
7. Saara is Estonian and Finnish. Nicknames include Saija and Salli.
8. Sarit is a Hebrew nickname.
9. Sari is Finnish.
10. Sarina is an English nickname.
11. Sassa is a Swedish nickname.
12. Sora is Yiddish.
13. Sura is another Yiddish variation. It depends upon one’s regional dialect.
14. Tzeitl, or Tzeitel, is a Yiddish nickname, made famous by Fiddler on the Roof (one of the rare films which stayed fairly close to the original source material).
15. Sadie is an English nickname, which has been in the U.S. Top 100 since 2013. These days, it’s more often used as a full name in its own right instead of a nickname for Sarah.
16. Sally, or Sallie, is another traditional English nickname which has long since fallen completely off the Top 1000.
17. Suri is a Yiddish nickname.
18. Sare is Turkish. The variation Sarê is Kurdish.
19. Sarette is an English and Afrikaans nickname.
20. Tzeril is a Yiddish nickname.
21. Zarita is a Latin American–Spanish nickname.
22. Surkki is Chuvash, a Turkic language spoken in central Russia.
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