Imara
Feminine · “firm”
Imara is Swahili for firm — solid, resolute, not easily shifted. It is an ordinary adjective in the language, used of a building as readily as of a person, and it is one of the more grounded things a name can mean.
How old is the name Imara?
Imara first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Imara is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Imara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Imara most popular?
Imara peaked in 2023, reaching #2975 nationally. Today it ranks #2998, 23 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From imara to Imara
The story of Imara
Swahili grew along the East African coast as a Bantu language carrying a very large Arabic vocabulary, laid down by centuries of Indian Ocean trade, and imara belongs to that layer. It is used as a name in East Africa and entered African-American naming through the twentieth-century turn toward African names, alongside Imani, Zuri and Nia. Its American record is recent and thin, and it travels well because every sound in it exists in English.
Meaning
firm, strong, resolute
Swahili imara means firm, steady or solid, and it is in everyday use for structures, decisions and character alike. The word is generally traced to Arabic, from a root about building and construction — the same root behind imara, a building — which suits the sense exactly. The reading is documented and not disputed.
How the name formed
- imara
- Imara
Related forms: Imara · Imara
Pronouncing Imara
ee-MAH-rah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle and clean open vowels throughout — Swahili has no reduced vowels at all. American English tends toward ih-MAR-uh, which flattens the ending.
Nicknames for Imara
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
- 1990
- Most girls named
- 202356 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2975reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%55 in 2025, from 55
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.
Imara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Imara in Swahili — same name
- Imara in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Imaras among us
people named Imara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 29,223 born in 2025 was named Imara
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 Gianina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Imara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gianina climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gianina's path sketches the road Imara is walking now.
Imara 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 Imara is headed
Imara looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 47% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. 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.
Imara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Imara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented meaning that is concrete and unusual — firmness rather than beauty or joy.
- Mara is a ready short form and a complete name in its own right.
- Five letters, entirely phonetic, and said nearly correctly by English speakers at first sight.
- It sits close to Amara, Tamara and Samara and gets misheard as all three.
- The final vowel is fully open in Swahili and reduced in American English.
- In the United States it is unfamiliar enough to be spelled out every time.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Imara
Feminine · #2998 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Imaras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Imara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Imara in 2025?
- Imara ranks #2998 among US girl names in 2025, with 55 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Imara?
- About 1 in every 29,223 US girls born in 2025 was named Imara — 55 in all.
- Will my child share the name Imara with classmates?
- Imara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Imara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Halia#2998 · Alize#2998 · Hilda#2998 · Leiana#2998 · Amna#2998 · Aniston#2998 · Kassie#2998 · Seline#2998
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Imara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Imara 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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