Adara
Feminine
Adara is the name Western star catalogs gave to the second-brightest star in Canis Major, taken from Arabic al-ʿadhārā, "the maidens" — you will also see it written Adhara. As a given name it moves easily between English and Spanish mouths, three open vowels with the weight in the middle, and it has been quietly gathering speed in American records for a few decades now.
How old is the name Adara?
Adara first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Adara is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,900 people named Adara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adara most popular?
Adara peaked in 2025, reaching #1004 nationally. Today it ranks #1004, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Adara appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Adara
The one place Adara is firmly documented is the night sky: Arab astronomers named a group of stars in what Europe calls Canis Major al-ʿadhārā, "the maidens," and the name attached itself in Latin catalogs to the brightest of them, spelled Adhara or Adara. Separately, English and American name books have long listed Adara as a Hebrew name meaning noble or exalted, a reading that circulated widely enough to shape how many families now understand it. The name appeared in US birth records only in the late twentieth century and has been climbing since, carried in good measure by Spanish-speaking families, for whom the vowels need no adjusting at all. Both roads lead to the same five letters, and most bearers meet both explanations sooner or later.
Meaningscholars disagree
Two readings compete: "the maidens" (Arabic) or "noble, exalted" (Hebrew)
The firmest documentation runs through astronomy: the star Epsilon Canis Majoris is called Adhara or Adara, from Arabic al-ʿadhārā, "the maidens." A second tradition, repeated across English-language name books since the twentieth century, reads Adara as Hebrew for "noble" or "exalted," connecting it to the root behind adir, "mighty." That Hebrew line is widely printed but thinly sourced, and neither reading has pushed the other out.
Pronouncing Adara
uh-DAR-uh
In Spanish it comes out ah-DAH-rah, with cleaner vowels and the same stress on the middle syllable. A few English speakers say AD-uh-ruh instead, and the DAR syllable gets read to rhyme with either "car" or "care" — worth deciding which you want and saying it first.
Nicknames for Adara
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2025249 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1004reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +3.8%249 in 2025, from 240
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Adara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adara in Spanish — same name
- Adhara in Spanish / astronomy — spelling variant
- عذارى (ʿAdhārā) in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Adaras among us
people named Adara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,455 born in 2025 was named Adara
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Breeanna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Adara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Breeanna climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Breeanna's path sketches the road Adara is walking now.
Adara is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Adara is headed
Adara is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 75% more babies given the name than today. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Adara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in both English and Spanish, with no silent letters and no unfamiliar combinations to explain.
- Comes with short forms already in wide use — Ada, Dara, Addie — each of which works as a full name elsewhere.
- Sits in the same rhythm as Amara, Alara and Adira, so listeners catch it on the first hearing even if they have never met it.
- Documented in star catalogs for centuries under the Adhara spelling, which gives the name a fixed reference point outside baby-name lists.
- The middle syllable has no settled English pronunciation — some people will say DAR to rhyme with car, others with care. Expect to correct it gently and often, and to pick a house version early.
- The meaning is genuinely unsettled, and people will offer you confident answers from both the Arabic and the Hebrew traditions. If a single definite meaning matters to you, this name will not give you one.
- Adhara, Adira, Adora and Amara all live close by, so a hand-written Adara gets nudged toward one of them now and then.
- It is rare enough that a child is unlikely to share it with anyone at school — pleasant for most kids, though it does mean the name is introduced rather than recognized.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Adara to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Adara
Feminine · #1004 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adaras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Adara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Adara in 2025?
- Adara ranks #1004 among US girl names in 2025, with 249 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adara?
- About 1 in every 6,455 US girls born in 2025 was named Adara — 249 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adara with classmates?
- Adara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Adara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mattie#1004 · Safa#1004 · Novah#1004 · Reya#1003 · Zoya#1000 · Baylee#1008 · Carly#1008 · Zayla#1008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Adara and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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