Meara
Feminine · “mirth”
Meara is Irish for mirth. The surname Ó Meadhra is built on meadhair, an old word for merriment and good humor, which is an unusually cheerful thing for a family name to have started as.
How old is the name Meara?
Meara first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Meara alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 1,400 people named Meara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meara most popular?
Meara peaked in 2015, reaching #2501 nationally. Today it ranks #3067, 566 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From meadhair to Meara
The story of Meara
The Ó Meadhra were a Tipperary sept, and the surname anglicized as O'Meara — one of the relatively few Irish surnames whose meaning is both clear and pleasant. It reached America with nineteenth-century emigration and stayed a surname for a long time. Its use as a girls' first name is recent, part of the movement that brought Kelly, Delaney and Riley forward, and the O' has been dropped in the process, as it usually is.
Meaning
mirth, merriment
Irish meadhair means mirth, joy or good humor, and Ó Meadhra is the surname built on it as a personal byname. The reading is documented and not disputed. The anglicized forms are O'Meara, Meara and Mara, and the name belonged to a family in Tipperary.
How the name formed
- meadhair
- Ó Meadhra
- Meara
Related forms: Ó Meadhra · O'Meara
Pronouncing Meara
MEER-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first. MAY-rah is also heard from readers taking the ea as in bear, and the Irish original is closer to the first. Both circulate in American use.
Nicknames for Meara
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 201572 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2501reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- +55.9%53 in 2025, from 34
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.
Meara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Meadhra in Irish — related form
- O'Meara in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Michigan, Maryland.
Mearas among us
people named Meara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 30,326 born in 2025 was named Meara
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 Khayla test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Meara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Khayla climbed just as high around 1999, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Khayla's path sketches the road Meara is walking now.
Meara 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 Meara is headed
Meara is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Meara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Meara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Irish surname with a genuinely cheerful and unusual meaning.
- Mia and Ara are both usable short forms and both are established names.
- Five letters, nothing silent, and easy for a small child to write.
- The two pronunciations both circulate, so the child will be correcting people.
- Meara, Mera, Mira and Myra sit close together in speech and get confused.
- It is a surname in Ireland and will be read as one by Irish speakers.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Meara
Feminine · #3067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mearas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Meara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Meara in 2025?
- Meara ranks #3067 among US girl names in 2025, with 53 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Meara?
- About 1 in every 30,326 US girls born in 2025 was named Meara — 53 in all.
- Will my child share the name Meara with classmates?
- Meara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Meara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Xitlaly#3067 · Finlee#3067 · Evany#3067 · Stacey#3067 · Mahnoor#3067 · Fabiola#3067 · Anissa#3067 · Melodi#3067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Meara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Meara and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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