Carra
Feminine
Carra sits among the Irish rock words without being demonstrably one of them. Carraig is the Irish for a rock, and it is all over the map: Carrick, Carrickfergus, Carraroe and a hundred smaller places take their names from it. Whether this spelling belongs to that family or arrived by some other road cannot be shown.
How old is the name Carra?
Carra was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Carra alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 900 people named Carra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carra most popular?
Carra peaked in 1880, reaching #679 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From An Irish word for a rock behind many place names to Carra
Our story of Carra
The Irish landscape vocabulary is unusually specific, and English borrowed almost none of it. There are separate words for a rock, a hill, a round hill, a ridge, a mountain pass, a small lake, a river mouth, a meadow by a river and a stony field, and every one of them is the first element of dozens of place names. Reading an Irish map is therefore a description of terrain in a language most of the people living there no longer speak, which is why the names survive the language: they are useful long after they stop meaning anything. There is a barony and a lake in Mayo spelled exactly as this name is, which may or may not have anything to do with it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Several roads reach this spelling. It may be an Irish place name, it may be a lengthening of a shorter name that means dear in one language and friend in another, and it may be a clipping of something longer. Four letters carry very little information, and the shorter a name is the harder it is to trace.
How the name formed
- An Irish word for a rock behind many place names
- A barony and a lake carrying this spelling
- Short names arriving from several directions
- Carra in American records from the earliest years
Pronouncing Carra
KAR-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The doubled r keeps the first vowel short: the single-r spelling is said with a long a by many Americans, so the two are not simply variants of each other.
Nicknames for Carra
Moderate
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 199328 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #679reached in 1880
- Change vs 2020
- −14.3%6 in 2023, from 7
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.
Carras among us
people named Carra are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Carra sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, clear and cannot be mispronounced once heard.
- The doubling fixes a vowel that would otherwise be read two ways.
- It is genuinely rare while looking entirely ordinary.
- Cara is much commoner and this will be converted into it.
- No source can be given, because four letters carry too little to trace.
- It will be assumed to be a shortening of something longer.
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Carra
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Carras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Carra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carra in 2025?
- Carra is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Carra with classmates?
- Carra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carra? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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