Keira
Feminine · “Dark”
Keira is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 33,836 girls against 7 boys since 1880.
Keira is the spelling that made an old Irish name easy for English speakers to read aloud: Ciara, from the Irish word for dark, respelled so the sound arrives on the first try. It has been on American records since the early 1960s, quietly at first, then much more widely once a British actress carried the spelling into wide view. Two syllables, an open vowel, and a soft ending — the same landing that Nora and Mira share.
How old is the name Keira?
Keira first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Keira alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 33,500 people named Keira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keira most popular?
Keira peaked in 2006, reaching #110 nationally. Today it ranks #621, 511 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Keira appears on these lists:
Works in Irish families too:
Where it comes from
From ciar (Irish: dark) to Keira
The story of Keira
The name begins with the Irish word ciar, 'dark', which gave the man's name Ciarán and its feminine counterpart Ciara. Ciara belonged to a seventh-century Irish saint, and the name stayed in Irish use for centuries before Irish naming came back into fashion across the English-speaking world in the twentieth century. The trouble was the spelling: outside Ireland, Ciara invites SEE-ar-a or KEE-ar-a rather than KEER-uh. Keira, along with Kiera and Ciarra, is one of the respellings that solved that, and it is the one that took hold most firmly in the United States and Britain.
Meaning
Dark, dark-haired
The root is the Irish adjective ciar, 'dark'. Keira is a phonetic English spelling of Ciara, the feminine of Ciarán. One caution: Keira is often filed alongside Kyra and Kira, which come from an unrelated Greek and Persian line meaning 'lord' or 'lady' — similar sound, different root.
How the name formed
- ciarIrish: dark
- Ciarán
- Ciara
- Kiera
- Keira
Related forms: Ciara · Kiera · Ciarra · Ciarán · Keirah
Pronouncing Keira
KEER-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The whole point of this spelling is that it produces KEER-uh on sight, where Ciara often does not.
Nicknames for Keira
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
- 1962
- Most girls named
- 20063,022 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #110reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −5.4%469 in 2025, from 496
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.
Keira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ciara in Irish — same name
- Kiera in English — spelling variant
- Ciarra in English — spelling variant
- Ciarán in Irish — related form
- Keirah in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Keiras among us
people named Keira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,427 born in 2025 was named Keira
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 Bobbie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bobbie climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bobbie's path sketches the road Keira is walking now.
Keira 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 Keira is headed
Keira is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High 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.
Keira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling does the pronunciation work: most English speakers read Keira correctly the first time, which Ciara cannot always claim.
- Short, two syllables, no silent letters — easy to say, easy to write once learned.
- It carries a documented Irish root going back to an old adjective, ciar, and a saint's name from the seventh century.
- Familiar across the English-speaking world, so it travels without translation between the US, Britain, Ireland and Australia.
- Keira, Kiera, Kira, Kyra and Ciara all sound close or identical, so expect a lifetime of spelling it out — and of receiving mail addressed to one of the others.
- One very well-known actress carries this spelling, and for many people the name will call her to mind first. That association is friendly, but it is strong.
- Births cluster in a fairly narrow stretch of years, so the name may read as belonging to a particular moment rather than as an old classic — though it is uncommon enough now that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- There is no obvious formal nickname; the name is already short, and the usual shortenings are casual ones.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Keira 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 Keira? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Keira
Feminine · #621 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 33,500 people named Keira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keira in 2025?
- Keira ranks #621 among US girl names in 2025, with 469 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keira?
- About 1 in every 3,427 US girls born in 2025 was named Keira — 469 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keira with classmates?
- Keira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Goldie#621 · Selene#621 · Amiyah#620 · Anne#619 · Noah#624 · Sariyah#624 · Marie#617 · Campbell#617
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keira 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.
Or jump into a head-to-head
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