Yaira
Feminine · “Hebrew "she will shine”
Yaira is the feminine of a Hebrew verb. Yair means "he will shine" or "he will enlighten" — it is a full clause, not a noun — and Yaira makes it female. Hebrew builds names this way constantly, from a finite verb rather than from an adjective, which gives the name a forward-looking grammar most European names do not have.
How old is the name Yaira?
Yaira first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Yaira alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 600 people named Yaira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yaira most popular?
Yaira peaked in 2003, reaching #3472 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 3,366 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From yaʾir to Yaira
The story of Yaira
The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language in the twentieth century created hundreds of new names by regular rules — take a biblical men's name and apply the feminine ending, or take a noun from the natural world and use it directly. Yaira, Livnat, Ofira and Amira come from the first process. Beyond Israel the name traveled to the Caribbean and to Puerto Rico in particular, where it has been used since the 1980s independently of any Jewish community, which is what produces the 2003 American peak — a Spanish-language usage of a modern Hebrew name.
Meaning
Hebrew "she will shine, she will give light"
From the Hebrew root ʾ-w-r, light, in the causative form: yaʾir, "he will give light". Yair is a biblical name, appearing in Numbers and Judges. Yaira is the modern Israeli feminine formation. The etymology is settled; what is modern is the feminine, which is a twentieth-century Hebrew revival formation rather than a biblical one.
How the name formed
- yaʾir
- Yair
- Yaira
Related forms: יאירה · Yair · Jaira
Pronouncing Yaira
yah-EE-rah
Three syllables in Hebrew with the stress on the second and the a and i kept separate. Spanish speakers say YIGH-rah in two syllables, collapsing the first two vowels. Both are in use.
Nicknames for Yaira
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 200742 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3472reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- +33.3%16 in 2025, from 12
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.
Yaira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יאירה in Hebrew — same name
- Yair in Hebrew (masculine) — related form
- Jaira in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Yairas among us
people named Yaira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Yaira
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 Samra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yaira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Samra climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Samra's path sketches the road Yaira is walking now.
Yaira 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
Yaira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yaira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, positive and unusually active — a verb rather than a description.
- It works in Hebrew and in Spanish without changing spelling.
- It is short, three syllables, with no difficult consonants.
- The number of syllables differs between Hebrew and Spanish usage.
- English readers hesitate over the initial Y before a vowel.
- Yaira, Jaira and Yahaira are all in the records and are related but not identical.
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What they receive
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Yaira
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yairas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Yaira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yaira in 2025?
- Yaira ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yaira?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Yaira — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yaira with classmates?
- Yaira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yaira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yaira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yaira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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