Ira
Feminine · “Watchful”
Ira is given to both — 7,125 girls and 55,410 boys since 1880. See Ira as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Three letters, two syllables, and a run in American records that reaches back as far as the records themselves. Ira came into English out of the Hebrew Bible, where it belonged to soldiers and a priest in King David's service, and it traveled to America with families who took their children's names straight from scripture. It has never been loud, and it has never gone away.
How old is the name Ira?
Ira was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ira alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 3,900 people named Ira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ira most popular?
Ira peaked in 1880, reaching #421 nationally. Today it ranks #1085, 664 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Ira appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From עִירָא (ʿIrā), Hebrew Bible to Ira
The story of Ira
Ira belongs to the Hebrew Bible, where three of the men around King David carry it — among them a warrior in his company and a priest in his household. English-speaking Protestants who named children from the Old Testament rather than the saints' calendar picked it up after the Reformation, and it crossed to New England with them, where it settled in as an ordinary American given name well before national birth statistics existed. That is why it arrives on the charts already established rather than climbing: it had been in use for generations by then. Elsewhere the same spelling grew from different soil entirely — as the Russian short form of Irina, and as Sanskrit Irā in India — so a single small word does duty in several unrelated traditions.
Meaning
Watchful, wakeful
The Hebrew name is built on a root meaning to be awake or to keep watch. Worth knowing: the identical three letters arrive by other roads too — in Russian, Ira is the everyday short form of Irina, and in Indian naming Irā is a separate Sanskrit word, most often given as 'earth'. Those are different names that happen to meet at the same spelling.
How the name formed
- עִירָא, Hebrew BibleʿIrā
- Ira, English scriptural naming after the Reformation
- Ira, American English
Related forms: עִירָא (ʿIrā) · Ира (Ira) · इरा (Irā) · Ira
Pronouncing Ira
EYE-ruh
EYE-ruh is the standard American reading. In Russian and in Indian usage the same spelling is said EE-ruh, so both pronunciations are genuinely in circulation and a family may want to state theirs once at the start.
Nicknames for Ira
Limited
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
- 2025222 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #421reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +13.3%222 in 2025, from 196
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.
Ira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- עִירָא (ʿIrā) in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ира (Ira) in Russian — related form
- इरा (Irā) in Hindi / Sanskrit — related form
- Ira in Finnish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New Jersey.
Iras among us
people named Ira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,240 born in 2025 was named Ira
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ira
- #1085
- Ira on the 2025 chart
- #715
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ira went to 222 girls in 2025, but Iyra, Iraa and Irah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 247, which makes it the 715th most-given girls’ name of the year — 370 places above the chart.
- Ira222
- Iyra12
- Iraa8
- Irah5
About 1 girl in 6,507 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,240 for Ira 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
Fashion outlook
Ira is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ira is headed
Ira should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Ira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters, spelled the way it sounds — a child will rarely have to dictate it letter by letter.
- An unbroken presence in American records since they began: no revival, no gap, no single decade that owns it.
- Works as written in Hebrew, Russian, Finnish and Indian families, each for its own reasons.
- Short and vowel-heavy, so it sits easily in front of long or consonant-heavy surnames.
- Two live pronunciations, EYE-ruh and EE-ruh, depending on who is reading it. Neither is wrong, and one correction usually settles it — but the correction will be needed.
- US records lean to boys without settling there, and in Russian-speaking circles Ira reads as a woman's name. Expect occasional assumptions in either direction, especially on paper before anyone has met the child.
- In the US the name is still strongly represented among much older generations, so adults may place it a few generations up. A child named Ira today is likely to be the only one in the school.
- IRA is also a well-known set of initials — the retirement account, and the Irish Republican Army. Spoken aloud the name is clear; in all-caps writing the overlap is there.
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Ira
Feminine · #1085 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Iras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,900 people named Ira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ira?
- Ira is the most-used spelling in US records — 222 of the 247 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Iyra, Iraa and Irah.
- How popular is the name Ira in 2025?
- Ira ranks #1085 among US girl names in 2025, with 222 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ira?
- About 1 in every 7,240 US girls born in 2025 was named Ira — 222 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ira with classmates?
- Ira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Saoirse#1085 · Arlett#1085 · Joan#1085 · Laramie#1085 · Susan#1085 · Savanna#1085 · Aira#1082 · Malayah#1082
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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