Vera
Feminine · Greek roots · “Faith' in Russian”
Vera is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 149,456 girls against 398 boys since 1880.
Vera is one of those short names that arrives fully formed — two syllables, four letters, nothing to spell out over the phone. It has been carried in Russian and in English for well over a century, sung across wartime Britain by Vera Lynn and worn in laboratories and on wedding-dress labels since. It sits in that small group of names that are simultaneously old-fashioned and turning up again in kindergarten registers.
How old is the name Vera?
Vera was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Vera alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 50,500 people named Vera are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Vera most popular?
Vera peaked in 1915, reaching #65 nationally. Today it ranks #205, 140 places below that high. See the whole 1915 chart.
Where it comes from
From Pistis (Greek, 'faith') to Vera
The story of Vera
The Slavic line is the older and better documented: Vera is the ordinary Russian noun for faith, used as a Christian name in the tradition of the virtue names, and it traveled westward with Russian and other Slavic families through the nineteenth century. English speakers picked it up in that same era, helped along by its resemblance to Latin vera, 'true', and by a fashion for Russian settings in fiction and on stage — Oscar Wilde's first play was called Vera; or, The Nihilists. It has been in continuous English-language use ever since, strongly represented among older generations and now climbing again among the newest. The Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian and Czech traditions all use it too, with barely a change in shape.
Meaningscholars disagree
'Faith' in Russian, or 'true' from Latin
In Russian, Vera is simply the word for faith — one of a trio of virtue names alongside Nadezhda (hope) and Lyubov (love), calqued from the Greek Pistis. Independently, the Latin adjective verus/vera means 'true', and English speakers have long read the name that way. Both roads are real; which one a given family means depends on where the name reached them.
Cultural footprint
Vera Wang (b. 1949) — The name in wedding dresses
Vera Rubin (b. 1928) — Astronomer whose work proved dark matter exists
Vera Lynn (b. 1917) — WWII Britain's "Forces' Sweetheart"
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- PistisGreek, 'faith'
- VeraRussian
- VeraEnglish
Related forms: Вера · Věra · Vera · Vera · Vera · Véra
Pronouncing Vera
VEER-uh
VEER-uh is standard in American English. VAIR-uh is common in Britain and in continental Europe, and Russian speakers say something closer to VYEH-rah. All three are the same name, and Veras often answer to more than one.
Nicknames for Vera
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19183,923 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #65reached in 1915
- Change vs 2022
- +10.7%1,482 in 2025, from 1,339
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.
Vera in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Вера in Russian — transliteration
- Věra in Czech — spelling variant
- Vera in Serbian / Croatian — same name
- Vera in Italian — same name
- Vera in Hungarian — same name
- Véra in French — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Veras among us
people named Vera are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,085 born in 2025 was named Vera
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Vera is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Vera is headed
Vera 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.
Vera beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Vera in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, spelled the way it sounds — rarely misheard and almost never misspelled.
- Works unchanged in Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Serbian and Hungarian, which matters in a family that spans languages.
- An unbroken record in English-language use for well over a century, so it is familiar to every generation without being common in any.
- Short enough that it needs no nickname, but Vee and the Russian Verochka are both there if wanted.
- The VEER-uh and VAIR-uh split is real and will follow her. Neither is wrong, but she will spend a lifetime gently correcting whichever half of the room says the other one.
- The name is still strongly associated with older generations, which is part of why it is coming back — but expect a few people to react to it as their great-aunt's name before they react to it as a baby's.
- 'Aloe vera' and a well-known handbag label both put the word in front of people daily, so the sound is familiar from contexts that have nothing to do with the name.
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What they receive
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Vera
Feminine · Greek roots · #205 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Veras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 50,500 people named Vera are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Vera in 2025?
- Vera ranks #205 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,482 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Vera?
- About 1 in every 1,085 US girls born in 2025 was named Vera — 1,482 in all.
- Will my child share the name Vera with classmates?
- Vera will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Vera
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jasmine#206 · Kylie#204 · Stevie#203 · Celine#207 · Bailey#208 · Noelle#202 · Adaline#208 · Mabel#201
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Vera? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Vera and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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