Kara
- Pronunciation
- [Ka-ra]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Variant Of Katherine. Pure.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Kara
Kara is a modern American spelling variant of Cara (see separate entry on Cara for the etymology — possibly from the Italian cara meaning "dear" or "beloved," or from the Old Norse Kara meaning "valkyrie" — one of the warrior maidens of Norse mythology who chose the slain heroes for Valhalla). The K-spelling Kara is essentially a 20th-century American invention.
The various spellings (Kara, Cara, Karra, Karah) are tracked separately by SSA and represent the same underlying name. The Kara spelling specifically appeals to parents seeking a sleeker form than the historical Cara. Notable bearers include American politician Kara Mariana Stevens; American basketball player Kara Lawson (born 1981, the iconic American WNBA player and basketball coach); contemporary American actress Kara DioGuardi (born 1970); and the iconic Marvel Comics character Kara Zor-El (Supergirl, the cousin of Superman, introduced 1959).
Kara has been continuously used in American naming for decades. The name held a US top-200 girls' rank from 1985 through 2000 — about fifteen years of consistent American popularity. The name has receded slightly since but remains in steady use, currently sitting in the US top 300 girls' rank. The name's appeal is its multi-cultural etymological flexibility (Italian/Norse), the in-built distinctive valkyrie-warrior or beloved-dear etymological register, the strong Supergirl Kara Zor-El cultural anchor, and the compact two-syllable -a ending. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to multi-cultural names. The name reads as both classical-multi-cultural and contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — the rare Karen (alternate, a separate but related name) and Karina (alternate elaborate, a popular standalone name) each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Kara, Cara, Carah, and Karra have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Cara (Italian original), Karen (Scandinavian alternate), and the broader Cara/Catherine family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kara
US Popularity History (1984–2024)
Annual US births named Kara by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1988 with 3,039 girls named Kara (girl rank #95 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2024, ranked #988 for girls (261 US births). That's 893 places below its 1988 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Kara Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Kara the strongest states are Idaho, Indiana, Ohio.
Strongest girls-name states
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #852 | 165 |
| 2 | Texas | #760 | 311 |
| 3 | Maryland | #755 | 53 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | #727 | 63 |
| 5 | Louisiana | #722 | 27 |
| 6 | North Carolina | #719 | 140 |
| 7 | Arizona | #719 | 74 |
| 8 | Florida | #708 | 154 |
| 9 | New Jersey | #697 | 69 |
| 10 | Georgia | #691 | 125 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kara in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Kara?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Kara to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kara against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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