Kiera
Feminine · “Dark”
Kiera is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 21,851 girls against 19 boys since 1880.
Kiera is the Irish word for dark, dressed in an English spelling that tells you how to say it. Behind it sits ciar, one of the oldest color words in the Irish language, which gave early Ireland the name Ciar and its saints and monks their names in the centuries after. Two syllables, one long vowel, nothing to trip over in the mouth.
How old is the name Kiera?
Kiera first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Kiera alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 21,500 people named Kiera are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kiera most popular?
Kiera peaked in 2007, reaching #293 nationally. Today it ranks #1096, 803 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ciar to Kiera
The story of Kiera
The name begins with the Irish word ciar, dark or dusky, which turns up as a personal name in early Ireland — Ciar for men, Ciara for women, and Ciarán as the affectionate diminutive borne by two of the best-known Irish monastic saints of the sixth century. Ciara belonged to a seventh-century Irish abbess venerated at Kilkeary in Tipperary, and it stayed in Irish use through the long centuries when saints' names did most of the naming. When the name traveled to English-speaking countries, the Irish spelling gave trouble: Ciara looks like it should rhyme with Sierra, though in Irish it is closer to KEER-a. Kiera is the repair — the same name, respelled so that English readers land on the right sound.
Meaning
Dark, dark-haired — from Irish ciar, "black, dark brown"
The root is the Irish adjective ciar. Ciara is its feminine form; Ciarán, the masculine diminutive, means something like "little dark one".
How the name formed
- Ciar
- Ciara
- Kiera
Related forms: Ciara · Keira · Ciarra · Keara · Ciarán · Ciar
Pronouncing Kiera
KEER-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. A minority of American families say KY-uh-ruh or KEE-air-uh, so it is worth saying aloud once at every introduction; the Irish original Ciara takes the same KEER-uh sound.
Nicknames for Kiera
High
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 20061,093 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #293reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- −17.0%219 in 2025, from 264
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.
Kiera in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ciara in Irish — same name
- Keira in English — spelling variant
- Ciarra in English — spelling variant
- Keara in English — spelling variant
- Ciarán in Irish — related form
- Ciar in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Pennsylvania.
Kieras among us
people named Kiera are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,339 born in 2025 was named Kiera
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kiera
- #1096
- Kiera on the 2025 chart
- #700
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kiera went to 219 girls in 2025, but Kierra is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 265, which makes it the 700th most-given girls’ name of the year — 396 places above the chart.
- Kiera219
- Kierra46
About 1 girl in 6,065 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,339 for Kiera 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 Alyce test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kiera's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alyce climbed just as high around 1921, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alyce's path sketches the road Kiera is walking now.
Kiera 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 Kiera is headed
Kiera should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Kiera beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kiera 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 work the Irish original could not: English readers reach KEER-uh on the first try far more often with Kiera than with Ciara.
- Short, two syllables, no silent letters, and easy to write early in school.
- A root with an unbroken record in Ireland going back to the early medieval saints — this is an old name, not a recent coinage.
- Recognized across the English-speaking world, with Irish, British and American forms all pointing back to the same word.
- It sits in a crowded field of spellings — Kiera, Keira, Ciara, Kyra, Keara — so she will spell it aloud often. Choosing one and holding to it is most of the battle.
- Kyra and Kira look like sisters but come from elsewhere entirely (Greek and Persian roots), which means people will sometimes assume a meaning the name does not have.
- It has been steadily but modestly used for decades, so a Kiera is unlikely to share her name in a classroom — pleasant for some families, less so for a child who wants the ordinary comfort of seeing her name on a keychain.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Kiera to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Kiera
Feminine · #1096 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kieras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 21,500 people named Kiera are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kiera?
- Kiera is the most-used spelling in US records — 219 of the 265 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kierra.
- How popular is the name Kiera in 2025?
- Kiera ranks #1096 among US girl names in 2025, with 219 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kiera?
- About 1 in every 7,339 US girls born in 2025 was named Kiera — 219 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kiera with classmates?
- Kiera will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kiera
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Claudia#1096 · Lavender#1095 · Jayleen#1098 · Sterling#1098 · Renee#1098 · Xochitl#1098 · Moriah#1092 · Maple#1092
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kiera? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kiera and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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