Ciara
Feminine · “dark”
Ciara is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 34,876 girls against 7 boys since 1880.
Ciara is the Irish feminine of Ciarán, built on the old Irish word for dark — the same root that gave English-speakers Kieran and Keira. A seventh-century Irish saint, Ciara of Kilkeary in Tipperary, carried it, and Ireland has kept it in steady use ever since. Two syllables, an open ending, and a first letter that surprises people who have only ever read it.
How old is the name Ciara?
Ciara first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Ciara alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 34,500 people named Ciara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ciara most popular?
Ciara peaked in 2005, reaching #149 nationally. Today it ranks #1406, 1,257 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Ciara appears on these lists:
Works in Irish families too:
Where it comes from
From ciar (Irish: dark) to Ciara
The story of Ciara
The root is the Irish word ciar, 'dark', which sat behind a whole family of early Irish names, Ciarán among them. Ciara belonged to a seventh-century saint associated with Kilkeary in County Tipperary, and it stayed alive in Ireland long after most names of that era faded. It reached American records in the late twentieth century, arriving alongside a wave of Irish names and helped along by anglicized cousins like Keira and Kiera that ears already recognized. Revlon has also sold a perfume under this spelling in the United States since the 1970s, which put the five letters in front of a lot of English-speaking readers before most of them had heard the Irish pronunciation.
Meaning
dark, dark-haired
From the Irish adjective ciar, 'dark' or 'black' — the feminine counterpart of Ciarán, which adds a diminutive ending to the same root.
How the name formed
- ciarIrish: dark
- Ciarán
- Ciara
- Keira
Related forms: Ciara · Keira · Kiera · Ciera · Ciarra · Ciarán
Pronouncing Ciara
KEER-uh
KEER-uh is the Irish pronunciation, with the C hard as in Kieran. In the United States see-AIR-uh and see-ERR-uh are both widely used, and some families choose that reading deliberately. Whichever you pick, expect to state it often, since the spelling gives no clue to strangers.
Nicknames for Ciara
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 20052,325 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #149reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- −7.7%155 in 2025, from 168
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.
Ciara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ciara in Irish — same name
- Keira in English (anglicized) — related form
- Kiera in English (anglicized) — related form
- Ciera in English — spelling variant
- Ciarra in English — spelling variant
- Ciarán in Irish (masculine) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Ciaras among us
people named Ciara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,369 born in 2025 was named Ciara
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ciara
- #1406
- Ciara on the 2025 chart
- #674
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ciara went to 155 girls in 2025, but Siara, Siyara and Siarah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 296, which makes it the 674th most-given girls’ name of the year — 732 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 5,430 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,369 for Ciara itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Shanna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ciara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shanna climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shanna's path sketches the road Ciara is walking now.
Ciara sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ciara is headed
Ciara should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Ciara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ciara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled, documented meaning in Irish and an unbroken record in Ireland going back to an early medieval saint.
- Short, two clear syllables, and easy to say once heard in either of its common pronunciations.
- Well-known relatives already familiar to English speakers: Kieran for boys, Keira and Kiera as anglicized spellings.
- Widely used across Ireland and Britain as well as the United States, so it travels without translation.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits — KEER-uh in Ireland, see-AIR-uh for many Americans. Neither is a mistake, but you will be correcting people, and so will she, for life.
- Spoken aloud, it will often be written down as Sierra, Ciarra or Keira. A quick spell-out becomes routine.
- It is stepping back from its high point, which means fewer classmates sharing it and slightly less instant recognition of the Irish reading than a generation ago.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Ciara to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Ciara? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Ciara
Feminine · #1406 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ciaras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 34,500 people named Ciara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ciara?
- Ciara is the most-used spelling in US records — 155 of the 296 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Siara, Siyara, Siarah, Syara and Siarra.
- How popular is the name Ciara in 2025?
- Ciara ranks #1406 among US girl names in 2025, with 155 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ciara?
- About 1 in every 10,369 US girls born in 2025 was named Ciara — 155 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ciara with classmates?
- Ciara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ciara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Scotlyn#1406 · Jasmin#1406 · Avayah#1406 · Adira#1406 · Rowen#1406 · Onyx#1406 · Aida#1413 · Addyson#1413
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ciara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ciara and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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