Mira
Feminine · “Wonderful' in Latin”
Mira is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 15,096 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Mira is the name Johannes Hevelius gave to a star in the constellation Cetus in the seventeenth century — stella mira, the wonderful star, the first variable star Europeans ever recorded fading and returning. It is also the name of Mirabai, the sixteenth-century Bhakti poet of Rajasthan, whose devotional songs to Krishna are still sung. Two syllables, five letters, and a long history on at least three continents.
How old is the name Mira?
Mira first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Mira is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 14,500 people named Mira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mira most popular?
Mira peaked in 2025, reaching #335 nationally. Today it ranks #335, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Mira appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Mira
There is no single road into this name. In the Slavic-speaking world Mira has served for generations as both a full name and the everyday form of Miroslava, Mirjana and Vladimira, built on mir, 'peace'. In South Asia the same spelling transliterates the Sanskrit Mīrā, carried by the poet Mirabai and still very much in use as Meera. Latin gave a third line: mirus, 'wonderful', which is why a seventeenth-century astronomer chose Mira for a star that appears and disappears. Jewish families have used it alongside Miriam. All of these met in the United States, where the name has been in continuous if quiet use for well over a century before the recent climb.
Meaningscholars disagree
'Wonderful' in Latin; 'peace' or 'world' in Slavic; also a Sanskrit name
Several separate names have arrived at this spelling. The Latin root is mirus, 'wonderful, astonishing' — the source of the star name Mira. In Slavic languages Mira comes from mir, 'peace' or 'world', and works as a short form of Miroslava and Mirjana. In India, Mīrā (also written Meera) is a Sanskrit name most associated with the poet Mirabai. In Albanian it connects to mirë, 'good'. None of these cancels the others out.
Pronouncing Mira
MEER-ah
MEER-ah is the most common American reading. Some families say MY-rah, on the pattern of Myra, and Slavic speakers use a shorter first vowel, closer to MIH-rah. All three are legitimate; it helps to pick one early and say it first when introducing her.
Nicknames for Mira
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
- 2025916 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #335reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +39.0%916 in 2025, from 659
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.
Mira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Meera in Hindi — transliteration
- Mira in Serbian and Croatian — same name
- Míra in Czech — spelling variant
- Mirka in Polish — related form
- Mirella in Italian — related form
- ميرا in Arabic — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Michigan.
Miras among us
people named Mira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,755 born in 2025 was named Mira
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mira
- #335
- Mira on the 2025 chart
- #238
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mira went to 916 girls in 2025, but Myra, Myrah and Mirah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,403, which makes it the 238th most-given girls’ name of the year — 97 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,146 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,755 for Mira 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 Margarita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Margarita climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Margarita's path sketches the road Mira is walking now.
Mira is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mira is headed
Mira 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.
Mira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and already familiar in Slavic, South Asian, Hebrew, Arabic and Romance-speaking families — it crosses borders without needing to be respelled.
- Two syllables and five letters: easy to write early, and no nickname is required for it to work.
- Comes with a ready-made affectionate form in Mimi, and doubles as the short form of Miriam, Amira and Mirabel if a longer legal name appeals.
- Documented American use stretching back well over a century, so it reads as established rather than newly coined.
- The MEER-ah / MY-rah split is real, and she will be asked which one she is. Neither is wrong, which is exactly why the question keeps coming up.
- It sits in a crowded sound-field with Mila, Maya, Mia, Myra and Nora — expect occasional mishearing and the wrong name called across a playground.
- In Spanish, mira is the everyday imperative 'look', so in Spanish-speaking settings the name doubles as a common word. Familiar rather than odd, but worth knowing.
- The trend line is pointing upward, so a child named Mira now may meet more Miras as she grows than the current classroom picture suggests.
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What they receive
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Mira
Feminine · #335 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Miras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 14,500 people named Mira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mira?
- Mira is the most-used spelling in US records — 916 of the 1,403 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Myra, Myrah, Mirah and Mirra.
- How popular is the name Mira in 2025?
- Mira ranks #335 among US girl names in 2025, with 916 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mira?
- About 1 in every 1,755 US girls born in 2025 was named Mira — 916 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mira with classmates?
- Mira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Anaya#336 · Hattie#334 · Aisha#337 · Lorelai#333 · Alayna#332 · Miley#338 · Viviana#331 · Emory#339
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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