Palmira
Feminine · “City of palms”
Palmira is a desert city with palms in its name, and the name is a translation — the Romans rendered the local word for the place into their own language and the translation stuck.
How old is the name Palmira?
Palmira first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Palmira alive today was born around 1952, making them about 73 years old. About 500 people named Palmira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Palmira most popular?
Palmira peaked in 1916, reaching #1805 nationally. See the whole 1916 chart.
Where it comes from
From Palmyra to Palmira
The story of Palmira
Palmyra was a caravan city that got rich taxing the trade between the Mediterranean and the east, and for a few years in the third century it was an empire. Its queen took over Egypt and most of Asia Minor, declared her son emperor, and struck coins with his face on them — and was defeated, captured and, according to the Roman account, paraded through Rome in gold chains before being given a villa and allowed to live out her life there. The city never recovered. The name survived on maps, in Latin, while the people who lived there went on calling it what they had always called it.
Meaning
City of palms
The Latin name is built on the word for a palm tree. The city's own name, in the local Semitic language, was Tadmor, and the two have coexisted for two thousand years — the Roman translation abroad, the original at home.
How the name formed
- Palmyra
- Palmira
Related forms: Palmira · Palmira
Pronouncing Palmira
pahl-MEE-rah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Spanish and Italian both say it this way.
Nicknames for Palmira
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
- 1911
- Most girls named
- 192420 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1805reached in 1916
- Change vs 2003
- 0.0%5 in 2016, from 5
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.
Palmira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Palmira in Spanish — same name
- Palmira in Italian — same name
Palmiras among us
people named Palmira are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Palmira sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a real place with an extraordinary history rather than an invented sound.
- It is read correctly on sight and shortens well.
- It is understood across southern Europe and Latin America.
- Palmyra is the English spelling of the city and hers will be written that way by some.
- The name is closely tied to one immigrant generation in the American record.
- The city's recent history is painful and will come up.
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What they receive
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Palmira
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Palmiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Palmira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Palmira in 2025?
- Palmira is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Palmira with classmates?
- Palmira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Patricia#1334 · Pamela#2239 · Phyllis#11932 · Peggy#8362 · Paula#853 · Pauline#2957 · Pearl#776 · Paige#346
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Palmira? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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