Kyra
Feminine
Kyra is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 38,285 girls against 23 boys since 1880.
Kyra sits at a crossing point of several old roads: the Greek Kyros, the Russian Kira, the Irish Keira. Two syllables, a hard opening K and a soft landing — short enough to need no shortening, and it has been on American records since the years just after the First World War.
How old is the name Kyra?
Kyra first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Kyra alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 37,500 people named Kyra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kyra most popular?
Kyra peaked in 2005, reaching #179 nationally. Today it ranks #827, 648 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kūruš to Kyra
The story of Kyra
The oldest thread runs through Greek: Kyros, the form Greek writers used for the Persian royal name Kūruš, and kyria, the ordinary Greek word for a lady. From Greek, Kira traveled into Russian and the wider Orthodox world as a woman's name in steady use, and it is that form that reached English in the twentieth century, where the y spelling settled alongside it. A separate road arrives from Ireland, where Ciara and its anglicizations Keira and Kiera cluster around the same sound. Kyra, in American use, is where those roads meet — which is why no single origin can claim it outright.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as 'lady' or as a feminine form of Cyrus
Two serious readings compete. One takes Kyra from Greek kyria, 'lady, mistress' — the everyday Greek word of address. The other treats it as a feminine of Kyros, the Greek rendering of the Persian royal name Kūruš, whose own meaning is not settled. In English-speaking use, Kyra has also absorbed the Irish Ciara/Keira, meaning 'dark' or 'dark-haired', so a given Kyra may sit in any of the three families depending on the family that chose it.
How the name formed
- Kūruš
- Kyros
- Cyrus
- Kira
- Kyra
Related forms: Кира (Kira) · Kira · Keira · Ciara · Kyriaki · Cyra
Pronouncing Kyra
KY-ruh
Two pronunciations are both in real use: KY-ruh, rhyming with Myra, and KEER-uh, matching Kira and Keira. Neither is wrong, so families generally pick one and correct gently.
Nicknames for Kyra
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
- 1919
- Most girls named
- 20051,912 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #179reached in 2005
- Change vs 2023
- −20.5%329 in 2025, from 414
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.
Kyra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Кира (Kira) in Russian — transliteration
- Kira in English — spelling variant
- Keira in English — related form
- Ciara in Irish — related form
- Kyriaki in Greek — related form
- Cyra in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kyras among us
people named Kyra are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,885 born in 2025 was named Kyra
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kyra
- #827
- Kyra on the 2025 chart
- #262
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kyra went to 329 girls in 2025, but Kira, Kyrah and Kirra and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 1,240, which makes it the 262nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 565 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 1,296 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,885 for Kyra 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 Mayra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kyra's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mayra climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mayra's path sketches the road Kyra is walking now.
Kyra 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 Kyra is headed
Kyra 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.
Kyra beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kyra in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and five letters — already short, so it works as the full name and needs no nickname to function day to day.
- Recognized across Greek, Russian and English-speaking traditions, which makes it travel well between families and languages.
- The line behind it is genuinely old, reaching back through Greek to a Persian royal name, so it is not a recent coinage.
- Familiar to most American ears without being crowded — a Kyra rarely shares her name in a classroom.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits: KY-ruh and KEER-uh are both established, so she will spend some of her life saying which one she uses.
- It sits in a busy spelling cluster — Kira, Keira, Kiera, Ciara — and forms will be guessed wrong on paperwork and in email. A quick spell-out becomes routine.
- The name is easing back from its high point, so it currently reads as belonging to adults in their twenties as much as to babies. That fades quickly once a new generation carries it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kyra
Feminine · #827 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kyras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 37,500 people named Kyra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kyra?
- Kyra is one of 6 recorded spellings. Kira is the more common one — 801 births in 2025 against 329 for Kyra.
- How popular is the name Kyra in 2025?
- Kyra ranks #827 among US girl names in 2025, with 329 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kyra?
- About 1 in every 4,885 US girls born in 2025 was named Kyra — 329 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kyra with classmates?
- Kyra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kyra
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aila#827 · Amelie#827 · Layan#827 · Celina#827 · Aliya#823 · Jessie#823 · Promise#823 · Nyomi#823
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kyra? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kyra and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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