A female name. Hebrew ‘princess’. The wife of Abraham, whose name was originally Sarai ‘contentious’, was later called Sarah. Sara is the hellenized form of the name. It is found in use in England as a christian name from the 12th C, usually in the form Sarra, but was not really common until after the Reformation, when Sarah becomes the usual spelling. In the 17th C the form Sarey is found (cf. the vulgar 19th-C pronunciation, e.g ‘Sairey Gamp'). In the 18th and 19th C the compound Saranna (Sara + Anna) had a certain vogue. The usual pet-form of the name in England is Sally (cf. Mally for Mary, Hal for Harry); in USA Sadie (cf. Maidie for Mary). In Ireland Sarah has been used to render the native Sorcha and Saraid.

Sarra Curia Regis Rolls 1189-1215, Hundred Rolls 1273, Feudal Aids 1303, 1316.Sara Yorks Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379.

SARAH. The former is, in C19-20, usually considered as the Continental, the latter as the British and American form of the name. Sarah and its contraction Sally were not in common use until after the Reformation. In Ireland it has been adopted for Sadhbh (pronounced ‘Soyv’), Sorcha, and Saraid, of which the first two are extant; by Highlanders it is often employed as a rendering of their native More (‘great’). The Hebrew Sarai, ‘the quarrelsome,’ became Sarah, ‘the princess’ (from sar, ‘a prince’). In Genesis we are told ‘how Jehovah, in token of his love, took the last letter of his name and added it to Sara... “God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be’” (Swan).

A female name derived from the Italian form of Sarah.

SARAH, Say'-rah, or SARAI, Say'-ray, lady, princess of the multitude. 1. The wife of Abraham, and his sister, having the same father, but not the same mother. Gen. xx. 12. 2. A daughter of Asher. Num. xxvi 46.

Meaning: (1) a princess: (2), the prince breathed (Num. 26: 46).