Jaira
Feminine · “Hebrew Yair”
Jair the Gileadite judged Israel for twenty-two years and the Bible tells us three things about him: he had thirty sons, they rode thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns. That is the entire entry. The minor judges get statistics where the major ones get stories, and the difference tells you something about how the book was assembled.
How old is the name Jaira?
Jaira first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Jaira alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 500 people named Jaira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jaira most popular?
Jaira peaked in 1999, reaching #4088 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 4,274 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yair to Jaira
The story of Jaira
The book of Judges alternates between two kinds of entry. Six figures get narratives: Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson and, briefly, Othniel, with battles, speeches and in Samson's case a whole cycle of stories. Six others get a formula: name, tribe, years judged, and a note about sons and donkeys. Jair, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Tola and Shamgar are the minor judges, and scholars have long read their entries as a separate source, a list of local rulers spliced into a narrative framework. The donkeys are not decorative: riding one is a mark of status in the period, and thirty sons on thirty donkeys holding thirty towns is a compressed statement about a dynasty controlling a region. What the entry lacks is any suggestion of a crisis or a deliverance, which is what the framework of the book requires and the list evidently did not supply.
Meaning
Hebrew Yair, he will shine or enlighten
From Hebrew or, light, in a verbal form giving he will enlighten or he shines. Jair appears in Numbers as a descendant of Manasseh and in Judges 10 as one of the minor judges. Jaira is a feminine formed from it, and may also be an American formation on the Ja- prefix. It peaks in 1999.
How the name formed
- Yair
- Jair
- Jaira
Related forms: Yair · Jaira
Pronouncing Jaira
HY-rah
Two syllables, stress on the first, in Spanish, where the J is the jota. English speakers say JAY-rah or JY-rah. The Hebrew Yair is yah-EER with the stress at the end.
Nicknames for Jaira
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
- 1983
- Most girls named
- 199928 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4088reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- +140.0%12 in 2025, from 5
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.
Jaira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yair in Hebrew — related form
- Jaira in Spanish — same name
Jairas among us
people named Jaira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Jaira
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 Desa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jaira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Desa climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Desa's path sketches the road Jaira is walking now.
Jaira 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
Jaira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jaira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Hebrew meaning is settled and positive.
- It is short and easy to spell.
- It has a documented biblical bearer, however briefly described.
- English and Spanish read the initial letter completely differently.
- Jaira, Yaira and Jayra all circulate.
- The biblical figure is male.
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What they receive
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Jaira
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jairas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Jaira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jaira in 2025?
- Jaira ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jaira?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Jaira — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jaira with classmates?
- Jaira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jaira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jaira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jaira and another name?
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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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