Isaura
Feminine · “Greek "from Isauria”
A Brazilian television serial made this name internationally famous. Escrava Isaura, broadcast in 1976 and sold to more than eighty countries, was a phenomenon in Poland, Cuba and China — and the American figures for Isaura peak in 1983, in the middle of its international run.
How old is the name Isaura?
Isaura first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Isaura alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 1,400 people named Isaura are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Isaura most popular?
Isaura peaked in 1983, reaching #2198 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 5,293 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Where it comes from
From Isauria to Isaura
The story of Isaura
Bernardo Guimarães published the novel A Escrava Isaura in 1875, thirteen years before Brazil abolished slavery, and it became one of the country's best-known abolitionist works. The 1976 television adaptation was Globo's first major international success and the program that established Brazilian telenovelas as a global export: it was dubbed into dozens of languages and drew audiences reported in the hundreds of millions in China, where it aired in 1984. That sequence — a nineteenth-century novel, a 1970s serial, a global audience — is why an obscure Anatolian place name is a living Portuguese and Spanish given name, and why its American curve peaks when it does.
Meaning
Greek "from Isauria", a region of Asia Minor
From Isauria, a mountainous region in what is now southern Turkey, whose inhabitants were known to Greeks and Romans as fierce and independent. Saint Isaura is an early martyr of the region. The name is standard in Portuguese and Spanish. It is not related to Isadora, which is Greek gift of Isis, or to Laura.
How the name formed
- Isauria
- Isaura
Related forms: Isaura · Isaura · Isaura
Pronouncing Isaura
ee-SOW-rah
Three syllables, stress on the second, with the au said as the ow of how. English speakers often say ih-SAW-ruh, flattening the diphthong.
Nicknames for Isaura
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
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 200763 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2198reached in 1983
- Change vs 2023
- +27.3%14 in 2025, from 11
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.
Isaura in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Isaura in Portuguese — same name
- Isaura in Spanish — same name
- Isaura in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Isauras among us
people named Isaura are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Isaura
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 Sandrea test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Isaura's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sandrea climbed just as high around 1944, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sandrea's path sketches the road Isaura is walking now.
Isaura 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
Isaura beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Isaura in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Isa and Aura are ready short forms.
- It is established in Portuguese and Spanish with a named saint.
- It is soft and flowing while being genuinely old.
- English speakers flatten the au diphthong.
- It is easily confused with Isadora and Laura in speech.
- It is rare in the United States and will need spelling out.
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What they receive
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Isaura
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Isauras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Isaura are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Isaura in 2025?
- Isaura ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Isaura?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Isaura — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Isaura with classmates?
- Isaura will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Isaura
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Isaura? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Isaura and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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