Lyra: Meaning of Baby Name Lyra

About the Name Lyra

Lyra descends from the Latin Lyra, ultimately from the Greek lyra (λύρα) — referring to the iconic ancient Greek stringed instrument, the lyre. The name has additional astronomical anchoring through the iconic constellation Lyra, one of the 88 modern constellations and one of the iconic 48 listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. The constellation Lyra is named for the iconic lyre of Orpheus, the iconic Greek mythological musician.

The name's overwhelming modern American cultural anchor is the iconic Lyra Belacqua of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (1995–2000, and the iconic 2007 film The Golden Compass and HBO 2019–2022 TV series adaptation) — the iconic young protagonist of the iconic British fantasy novels.

Lyra's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2018 and the top 200 since. The name has been used predominantly for girls in modern American naming. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Greek-Latin-mythological-astronomical pedigree, the strong Lyra Belacqua His Dark Materials contemporary literature/film cultural anchor, and the compact two-syllable -ra ending family (Lyra, Mira, Sara, Cara). Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to invented modern-classical names. The name reads as both classical-Greek and distinctly contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Ly (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Lyri, and the rare Lyrah each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Lyra and Lira have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Lira (Italian/Spanish), Lyra (essentially identical across English/French/Greek), and the original Greek lyra.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Lyra

1,414

French baby names in our dictionary

843

French female names

103

4-letter L-names in our dictionary

530

L-female names total

2015–2025

years of US SSA records (11 total)

5,640

total US births named Lyra (all years)

US Popularity History (2015–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Lyra climbed 114 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#549 in 2020 → #435 in 2025).

Annual US births named Lyra by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 711 girls named Lyra (girl rank #435 that year).

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.

Where in the US Is Lyra 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 Lyra the strongest states are Maine, Oregon, Colorado.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Maine	#203	24
2	Oregon	#303	117
3	Colorado	#327	150
4	Washington	#361	199
5	Nebraska	#378	20
6	Kansas	#382	56
7	Idaho	#403	27
8	Connecticut	#437	37
9	Nevada	#444	43
10	Massachusetts	#446	140

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Texas	#825	187
2	Georgia	#811	90
3	Alabama	#797	30
4	Louisiana	#731	33
5	New Jersey	#700	47
6	Kentucky	#685	39
7	Florida	#662	215
8	North Carolina	#638	150
9	Oklahoma	#626	56
10	New York	#622	237

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lyra in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Looking for names like Lyra?

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.

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Compare Lyra to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lyra against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Lyra vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Lyra vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Lyra vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Lyra vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Lyra vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Lyra vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Lyra vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Lyra vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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