Kierra
Feminine · “dark”
Kierra is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 15,664 girls against 18 boys since 1880.
Kierra is Kiera respelled, and the Irish behind it is ciar — dark — the same word that gives Ciarán, Kerry and the whole family of dark-haired names.
How old is the name Kierra?
Kierra first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Kierra alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 15,500 people named Kierra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kierra most popular?
Kierra peaked in 1995, reaching #316 nationally. Today it ranks #3342, 3,026 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ciar to Kierra
The story of Kierra
Ciara was an early Irish saint's name that stayed in Irish use and became widely popular in Ireland from the 1970s. English-speaking countries took it up and produced Kiera, Keira, Kierra and Kiara among others. Kierra appears in American records from the 1980s and peaked in the mid-1990s.
Meaning
dark, black
From the Irish ciar, 'dark' or 'black', through Ciara, the feminine of Ciarán. It was a descriptive personal name for dark hair or coloring. Saint Ciara was a seventh-century Irish abbess. The element is ordinary Irish and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- ciar
- Ciara
- Kiera
- Kierra
Related forms: Ciara · Kiera · Keira
Pronouncing Kierra
kee-AIR-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Some bearers say KEER-uh with two, which is closer to the Irish.
Nicknames for Kierra
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 1995878 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #316reached in 1995
- Change vs 2024
- −16.4%46 in 2025, from 55
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.
Kierra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ciara in Irish — related form
- Kiera in English — spelling variant
- Keira in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas.
Kierras among us
people named Kierra are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 34,941 born in 2025 was named Kierra
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kierra
- #3342
- Kierra on the 2025 chart
- #700
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kierra went to 46 girls in 2025, but Kiera 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 — 2,642 places above the chart.
- Kiera219
- Kierra46
About 1 girl in 6,065 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 34,941 for Kierra 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 Wendi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kierra's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Wendi climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Wendi's path sketches the road Kierra is walking now.
Kierra 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 Kierra is headed
Kierra should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Kierra beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kierra in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The dark meaning is concrete and belongs to a large and coherent Irish family.
- A documented seventh-century Irish abbess stands behind the parent name.
- Kiki is a warm and immediate short form.
- At least four spellings of the sound are in common use.
- The pronunciation splits between a two- and a three-syllable reading.
- It is closely dated to the 1990s in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kierra
Feminine · #3342 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kierras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,500 people named Kierra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kierra?
- Kierra is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kiera is the more common one — 219 births in 2025 against 46 for Kierra.
- How popular is the name Kierra in 2025?
- Kierra ranks #3342 among US girl names in 2025, with 46 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kierra?
- About 1 in every 34,941 US girls born in 2025 was named Kierra — 46 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kierra with classmates?
- Kierra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kierra
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zorah#3342 · Monique#3342 · Kinleigh#3342 · Emmelyn#3342 · Zyana#3342 · Swara#3342 · Azaleah#3342 · Elenora#3342
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kierra? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kierra and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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