Lara
Feminine · Greek roots · “No single settled meaning”
Lara is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 30,168 girls against 34 boys since 1880.
Lara reached English speakers largely through Russian, as the everyday form of Larisa, and then through one book: Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, whose heroine is called Lara. The film that followed carried "Lara's Theme" into every radio and piano bench of the decade. Four letters, two open vowels, nothing to trip over in the mouth.
How old is the name Lara?
Lara first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Lara alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 28,500 people named Lara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lara most popular?
Lara peaked in 1969, reaching #222 nationally. Today it ranks #691, 469 places below that high. See the whole 1969 chart.
Where it comes from
From Larissa (Greek city name) to Lara
The story of Lara
The name's clearest line runs through Russian, where Larisa has long been shortened to Lara in ordinary speech. English-speaking readers met it that way in Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, published in the late 1950s, and then in the film of the following decade, whose theme tune bore her name and was played half to death. It had already appeared in American records well before that, and the Roman Lara of Ovid's Fasti, together with the Castilian surname from Lara in Burgos, means the four letters were in circulation in Europe long before any novel. Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Turkey and the German-speaking countries all use it today in exactly this spelling.
Meaningscholars disagree
No single settled meaning — most often read as a short form of Larisa, after the Greek city Larissa
Three separate roads meet at this spelling. As a Russian pet form of Larisa, it points back to Larissa in Thessaly, whose own place-name meaning has never been established. In Latin, Lara (also Larunda) is a figure in Ovid's Fasti, connected with the Lares, the household gods of Roman homes. And in Spanish and Portuguese, Lara is a surname from Lara de los Infantes in Burgos, home of the medieval House of Lara. None of the three cancels the others out.
How the name formed
- LarissaGreek city name
- Larisa
- Lara
Related forms: Лариса (Larisa) · Larissa · Lara · Lara · Lara · Lára
Pronouncing Lara
LAH-rah
The first syllable takes the vowel of "father". Many American speakers say LAIR-ah instead, and both are heard without correction; it helps to say which one you mean the first few times.
Nicknames for Lara
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
- 1887
- Most girls named
- 19701,332 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #222reached in 1969
- Change vs 2022
- −3.5%409 in 2025, from 424
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.
Lara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Лариса (Larisa) in Russian — related form
- Larissa in Portuguese — related form
- Lara in Italian — same name
- Lara in Turkish — same name
- Lara in Croatian — same name
- Lára in Icelandic — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, New York. International figures from Office for National Statistics. Sources
Laras among us
people named Lara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,930 born in 2025 was named Lara
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 Therese test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Therese climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Therese's path sketches the road Lara is walking now.
Lara 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 Lara is headed
Lara 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.
Lara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, one obvious spelling once the sound is known, and no silent letters to dictate over the phone.
- Used unchanged in Italian, Turkish, Croatian, Slovenian, German and Portuguese, so it travels without translation.
- On US records for well over a century, and currently in use in England and Wales too — familiar without being crowded.
- Short enough to need no nickname, which spares a child the usual negotiation over shortenings.
- Two pronunciations circulate in American English — LAH-rah and LAIR-ah — so she will likely spend some of her life gently correcting people, or letting both stand.
- It sits close to Laura, Lauren, Clara and Larissa, and mishearings in that direction are common on introductions and voicemails.
- For a good many adults, the name recalls Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider games as readily as Pasternak's heroine. Neither association is unkind, but both are strong.
- Because it is already brief, there is little room to soften or lengthen it later — the name she gets at the start is more or less the name she keeps.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lara 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 Lara? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lara
Feminine · Greek roots · #691 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Laras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 28,500 people named Lara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lara in 2025?
- Lara ranks #691 among US girl names in 2025, with 409 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lara?
- About 1 in every 3,930 US girls born in 2025 was named Lara — 409 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lara with classmates?
- Lara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kinley#691 · Billie#691 · Khaleesi#689 · Georgina#689 · Emmie#694 · Baylor#694 · Rowyn#694 · Emberly#688
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lara and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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