Miranda
Feminine · “admirable”
Miranda is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 114,979 girls against 189 boys since 1880.
Miranda begins in a play: Shakespeare gave the name to the girl raised on an island in The Tempest, around 1611, drawing it straight out of Latin. It has been in continuous English-language use ever since, and it arrives with a rhythm that carries easily in English, Spanish and Italian alike — three syllables with the weight in the middle.
How old is the name Miranda?
Miranda first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Miranda alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 112,000 people named Miranda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Miranda most popular?
Miranda peaked in 1995, reaching #57 nationally. Today it ranks #654, 597 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Where it comes from
From Latin mirari (to wonder at) to Miranda
The story of Miranda
The name was coined for the stage. Shakespeare built it from Latin for the daughter of Prospero in The Tempest, first performed in the early seventeenth century, and it is one of the small handful of English names whose birth certificate is a piece of literature. From there it slipped into ordinary use, helped along by the Romantic-era taste for Shakespearean names, and it has been on American records since the nineteenth century. It also exists on a separate track as a Spanish and Portuguese surname drawn from place names in Iberia — the same spelling, a different road — and astronomers borrowed the play again when they named one of the moons of Uranus Miranda.
Meaning
admirable, worthy of admiration
From Latin mirandus/miranda, the form of mirari ('to wonder at, admire') meaning 'to be admired'. The same root sits inside English words like miracle and admire.
How the name formed
- Latin mirarito wonder at
- Latin mirandato be admired
- Miranda
Related forms: Miranda · Miranda · Miranda · Miranda · Миранда · Μιράντα
Pronouncing Miranda
mih-RAN-duh
Stress on the middle syllable in English, Spanish and Italian alike. Spelled the way it sounds, which spares it the lifetime of corrections some names carry.
Nicknames for Miranda
High
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 19964,568 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #57reached in 1995
- Change vs 2022
- −22.4%437 in 2025, from 563
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.
Miranda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Miranda in Spanish — same name
- Miranda in Italian — same name
- Miranda in Portuguese — same name
- Miranda in Swedish — same name
- Миранда in Russian — transliteration
- Μιράντα in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Mirandas among us
people named Miranda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,678 born in 2025 was named Miranda
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 Ellen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Miranda's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ellen climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ellen's path sketches the road Miranda is walking now.
Miranda is coming down from a big peak (#57 in 1995). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Miranda is headed
Miranda 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.
Miranda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Miranda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled phonetically and recognized on sight in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and the Nordic languages — useful for a family that crosses languages.
- A documented origin you can point to: coined by Shakespeare for The Tempest, in unbroken use for four centuries.
- Several established short forms — Mira, Randa, Mandy — so the child has options without inventing any.
- Long enough to sit comfortably beside a short surname, and already familiar to every adult who hears it.
- In the United States the word Miranda also names the police warning that follows from the 1966 Supreme Court case — 'read him his Miranda rights.' Most people never connect it to a person, but the phrase is common enough that it will come up.
- Miranda is a very widespread Spanish and Portuguese surname, so check how it lands with yours; Miranda Miranda-type collisions are worth reading aloud first.
- The name is stepping back from a recent high point, which means most Mirandas around are adults rather than children. A young one will likely be the only one in her class, and will meet grown women who share it.
- Of the short forms, Randy reads as a man's name in the US and has a slang sense in British English — easy to steer away from, but worth knowing before someone else picks it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Miranda 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 Miranda? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Miranda
Feminine · #654 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mirandas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 112,000 people named Miranda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Miranda in 2025?
- Miranda ranks #654 among US girl names in 2025, with 437 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Miranda?
- About 1 in every 3,678 US girls born in 2025 was named Miranda — 437 in all.
- Will my child share the name Miranda with classmates?
- Miranda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Miranda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Gloria#654 · Eileen#654 · Rosa#652 · Alara#652 · Irene#651 · Hana#657 · Aleena#657 · Andie#650
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Miranda? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Miranda and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle