Maira
Feminine · “of the Maria family”
Maira is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 6,341 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Maira is a spelling that two traditions reached separately. In Spanish and Portuguese it belongs to the enormous Maria family. In Greek it is a name out of the myths, carried by a nymph and by a dog who was set among the stars.
How old is the name Maira?
Maira first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Maira alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 6,200 people named Maira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maira most popular?
Maira peaked in 1992, reaching #731 nationally. Today it ranks #2751, 2,020 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Miriam to Maira
The story of Maira
Maria came out of Hebrew Miriam through Greek and Latin and became the most widely given woman's name in the Western world, throwing off dozens of variants as it went — Mayra, Maira, Marya, Maira again in different countries. Independently, Greek myth has a Maira: in one telling the faithful dog of Icarius, placed in the sky as a star after her master's death. Spanish-speaking families are the ones who bring Maira to United States records, and it is the Maria road they are almost always on.
Meaningscholars disagree
of the Maria family — or, in Greek, the shimmering one
The Spanish road treats Maira and Mayra as variants within the Maria group, and Maria's own meaning is famously unsettled — 'bitter', 'beloved' and an Egyptian source have all been argued and none has won. The Greek road is separate: Maira is a name in the myths, generally connected to marmairein, 'to shimmer or sparkle', which suits a figure who ends up as a star. The two have nothing to do with each other.
How the name formed
- Miriam
- Maria
- Mayra
- Maira
Related forms: Mayra · María · Μαῖρα · Maíra
Pronouncing Maira
MY-rah
Two syllables, stress on the first, the opening rhyming with my. Spanish says it the same way. Some families give it three — mah-EE-rah — following the Portuguese Maíra, where the accent separates the vowels.
Nicknames for Maira
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 1992290 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #731reached in 1992
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%62 in 2025, from 62
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.
Maira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mayra in Spanish — spelling variant
- María in Spanish — related form
- Μαῖρα in Greek — transliteration
- Maíra in Portuguese — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Mairas among us
people named Maira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 25,924 born in 2025 was named Maira
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maira
- #2751
- Maira on the 2025 chart
- #812
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maira went to 62 girls in 2025, but Mayra is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 148, which makes it the 812th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,939 places above the chart.
- Mayra86
- Maira62
About 1 girl in 10,860 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 25,924 for Maira 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 Elayne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elayne climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elayne's path sketches the road Maira is walking now.
Maira 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 Maira is headed
Maira 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.
Maira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Belongs to the largest name family in the Western world, so it is placed instantly.
- Five letters, no silent ones, and said correctly by English and Spanish speakers alike.
- Short and clean without being a trimming of something longer.
- Mayra, Maira, Myra and Moira are all live names that sound close and get confused.
- Its meaning depends on which road the family is on, and neither road offers a settled gloss.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maira
Feminine · #2751 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mairas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,200 people named Maira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maira?
- Maira is one of 2 recorded spellings. Mayra is the more common one — 86 births in 2025 against 62 for Maira.
- How popular is the name Maira in 2025?
- Maira ranks #2751 among US girl names in 2025, with 62 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maira?
- About 1 in every 25,924 US girls born in 2025 was named Maira — 62 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maira with classmates?
- Maira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emmersyn#2751 · Allisson#2751 · Runa#2751 · Cloe#2751 · Emeline#2751 · Annalynn#2751 · Anisa#2751 · Nya#2751
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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