Serayah

Meaning of Serayah

Serayah is a modern feminine given name that appears to derive from the Hebrew Sariah—composed of sar (“princess”) and the theophoric suffix -yah (a reference to Yahweh)—thus conveying a semantic field of divine sovereignty or “princess of God.” Although this precise orthography is not attested in ancient onomastic corpora, its formation is fully consistent with classical Hebrew naming conventions and has, since the early 2010s, been adopted within Anglo-American communities. Phonologically, it is rendered in English as /səˈreɪə/, with primary stress on the second syllable, a pattern that contributes to its measured prosody. According to U.S. Social Security Administration data, Serayah first entered the registry in 2010 with seven recorded births (rank 947) and has since experienced a gradual ascent and stabilization in the lower nine hundreds, most recently achieving rank 894 in 2024 with fifty-six occurrences. Its visibility has been further reinforced by the American actress and singer Serayah McNeill, whose career prominence from the mid-2010s onward has lent the name additional cultural resonance. In combining scriptural homage with a distinctive orthographic innovation, Serayah offers both historical depth and contemporary stylistic appeal.