Kara
Feminine · “dear”
Kara is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 101,743 girls against 282 boys since 1880.
Kara is the K-spelled cousin of Cara, and behind both stands the Latin *cara* — the feminine of *carus*, "dear" — which survives untouched in Italian to this day. The same four letters also spell an Irish word for "friend," and Kára, the name of a valkyrie in Old Norse verse. Two syllables, no silent letters, and a long run on American records behind it.
How old is the name Kara?
Kara first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Kara alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 98,500 people named Kara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kara most popular?
Kara peaked in 1984, reaching #95 nationally. Today it ranks #1071, 976 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Kara appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Latin carus / cara to Kara
The story of Kara
Cara came into English use in the nineteenth century as a borrowing of the Italian endearment, and it kept that plain, transparent meaning. The K spelling belongs to a later chapter: mid-twentieth-century American naming ran heavily to K — Karen, Kari, Kristin, Kristen — and Cara followed the fashion into Kara, which then took on a life independent of its parent. Irish usage supplied a second, unrelated justification for the same letters, since *cara* is the ordinary Irish word for a friend. And in Old Norse poetry there is Kára, one of the named valkyries, a spelling that predates the American vogue by many centuries without feeding into it.
Meaningscholars disagree
"dear, beloved" (Latin/Italian) or "friend" (Irish)
Kara arrives from more than one direction. As a respelling of Cara it carries Italian *cara*, "dear, beloved," from Latin *carus*. Irish *cara* means "friend," and Cara has been used as a given name in Ireland on that basis. Separately, Kara has served English speakers as a short form of Katherine and as a near-neighbor of Karen and Kari. Old Norse gives a valkyrie called Kára, whose own meaning is not agreed on.
How the name formed
- Latin carus / cara
- Italian cara
- Cara
- Kara
Related forms: Cara · Cara · Karah · Carra · Kára · Kari
Pronouncing Kara
KAR-uh
Two competing pronunciations are both in genuine American use: KAIR-uh, with the first syllable like "care," and KAR-uh or KAH-ruh, with the vowel of "car." Which one sounds default depends heavily on regional accent, so expect to correct people occasionally either way.
Nicknames for Kara
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
- 1896
- Most girls named
- 19883,039 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #95reached in 1984
- Change vs 2023
- −20.1%226 in 2025, from 283
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.
Kara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cara in Italian — same name
- Cara in Irish — same name
- Karah in English — spelling variant
- Carra in English — spelling variant
- Kára in Old Norse — related form
- Kari in Norwegian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Karas among us
people named Kara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,112 born in 2025 was named Kara
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kara
- #1071
- Kara on the 2025 chart
- #591
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kara went to 226 girls in 2025, but Cara and Carah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 399, which makes it the 591st most-given girls’ name of the year — 480 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,028 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,112 for Kara 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 Margie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Margie climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Margie's path sketches the road Kara is walking now.
Kara 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 Kara is headed
Kara is easing off slowly — about 23% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Kara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and fully written out — no long formal version to grow into, nothing to abbreviate on a form.
- Documented on US records across more than a century of continuous use, so it reads as established rather than newly coined.
- The same four letters work in Italian and Irish, and Cara is instantly recognizable to English speakers who see them.
- Common enough for everyone to have heard it, uncommon enough now that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- The KAIR-uh / KAR-uh split is real and won't resolve itself. Decide which you want and be ready to say it, because listeners will default to whichever their accent prefers.
- Cara, Kara, Karah and Carra all circulate, so the spelling will need confirming over the phone for life — a small, permanent tax rather than a problem.
- The name is still strongly represented among adults, less so among today's small children. It may read to some ears as a grown-up's name rather than a new baby's, which fades as the child does the work of it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Kara 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 Kara? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Kara
Feminine · #1071 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 98,500 people named Kara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kara?
- Kara is the most-used spelling in US records — 226 of the 399 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Cara and Carah.
- How popular is the name Kara in 2025?
- Kara ranks #1071 among US girl names in 2025, with 226 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kara?
- About 1 in every 7,112 US girls born in 2025 was named Kara — 226 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kara with classmates?
- Kara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Harriet#1071 · Aniya#1071 · Joyce#1071 · Annelise#1071 · Bailee#1069 · Lailani#1069 · Rubi#1076 · Ann#1076
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kara and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle