Adhara
Feminine · Arabic roots · “the maidens”
Adhara is the name of a star — the second-brightest in Canis Major, the Great Dog, which follows Orion across the winter sky. It reached European star charts from Arabic, where the old asterism was called al-ʿadhārā, the maidens, and it kept that name through centuries of Latin translation before the International Astronomical Union made it official in 2016. Said aloud it is three open vowels in a row, with the weight landing in the middle.
How old is the name Adhara?
Adhara first appears in US birth records in 2013 — 12 years ago. Adhara is overwhelmingly a brand-new baby name right now — most Adharas are still in diapers. About 2,100 people named Adhara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adhara most popular?
Adhara peaked in 2025, reaching #370 nationally. Today it ranks #370, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From al-ʿadhārā (Arabic asterism name) to Adhara
The story of Adhara
The name belongs first to a star: Epsilon Canis Majoris, blazing at the hind leg of the Great Dog. Arab astronomers of the medieval period named a cluster of stars there al-ʿadhārā, the maidens, and when Arabic astronomical works were translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, dozens of such names crossed into European use in half-Latinized form — Adhara among them. It sat in star catalogs and almanacs for centuries as a technical label, and the International Astronomical Union confirmed it as the star's official name in 2016. Its move onto birth certificates is recent, and in the United States it has taken hold first in Spanish-speaking communities, where the vowels fall naturally.
Meaning
the maidens, from Arabic al-ʿadhārā
ʿadhārā is the plural of ʿadhrāʾ, maiden or virgin. The plural referred to a group of stars in that part of the sky, and the name later attached to just the brightest of them.
How the name formed
- al-ʿadhārāArabic asterism name
- AdharaLatinized star name in medieval European astronomy
- Adharagiven name
Related forms: العذارى (al-ʿadhārā) · Adhara · Adhara · Adara · Adara
Pronouncing Adhara
ah-DAH-rah
Spanish speakers say it with three even, open vowels and a plain d — the h is silent. In English you will also hear uh-DAR-uh, and some readers try ad-HAR-uh on first sight. Saying it once usually settles it.
Nicknames for Adhara
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
- 2013
- Most girls named
- 2025829 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #370reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +26.0%829 in 2025, from 658
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.
Adhara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- العذارى (al-ʿadhārā) in Arabic — transliteration
- Adhara in Spanish — same name
- Adhara in Portuguese — same name
- Adara in English — spelling variant
- Adara in Italian — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, California.
Adharas among us
people named Adhara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,939 born in 2025 was named Adhara
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 Mckayla test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Adhara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mckayla climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mckayla's path sketches the road Adhara is walking now.
Adhara 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 Adhara is headed
Adhara is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 308% 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.
Adhara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adhara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Anchored to a real, named star with a documented Arabic origin — an answer to "where does it come from" that holds up.
- Works in both Spanish and English without changing spelling, which matters in the states where it is most used.
- Short forms already exist and are familiar: Ada and Dara are both established names on their own.
- Spelled the way it sounds once heard, with no silent letters beyond the h.
- The dh will cost some spelling. Adara is the form many people default to, and the h gets dropped in writing more often than it gets added.
- Two pronunciations circulate — the Spanish ah-DAH-rah and an anglicized uh-DAR-uh. Neither is wrong, but a child may spend a lifetime choosing which one to correct.
- It is climbing quickly. A child born now may be the only Adhara in the building, and still meet several by the time she finishes school.
- Almost everyone carrying the name is very young, so there is no adult template for it yet — no one to say "like the singer" or "like my aunt".
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Adhara
Feminine · Arabic roots · #370 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adharas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Adhara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Adhara in 2025?
- Adhara ranks #370 among US girl names in 2025, with 829 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adhara?
- About 1 in every 1,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Adhara — 829 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adhara with classmates?
- Adhara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Adhara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Raya#369 · Jordyn#371 · Mallory#372 · Alaya#368 · Esmeralda#373 · Adriana#366 · Ariyah#366 · Malani#374
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adhara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Adhara and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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