Mira
- Pronunciation
- [Mi-ra]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Bitter
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Mira
Mira has multiple proposed origins. The most credible Slavic line connects Mira to the Old Slavic mir meaning "peace" or "world" — the same Slavic root that yields names like Vladimir and Miroslav. A separate Latin line connects Mira to mira meaning "wonderful" or "admirable" (from mirari, to wonder). A third Hebrew line connects Mira to a short form of Miriam (see separate entry on Miriam). A fourth Sanskrit line connects Mira to mira meaning "sea."
Notable bearers include the iconic Indian poetess Mirabai (c. 1498–1546/1547, the iconic Indian Hindu Bhakti movement poet-saint whose devotional verses to Krishna are among the foundational works of medieval Indian devotional literature); American actress Mira Sorvino (born 1967, the iconic American Oscar-winning actress of Mighty Aphrodite 1995); contemporary American author Mira Ptacin; and the contemporary American novelist Mira Jacob.
Mira's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2005 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 300 since. The name has been driven primarily by Indian-American, Slavic-American, and Jewish-American naming. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the multi-cultural etymological flexibility (Slavic/Latin/Hebrew/Sanskrit), the compact two-syllable -a ending family (Mira, Lila, Stella, Greta), and the modern visual presence. 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 Mir and Miri each occasionally appear; the longer formal Miriam, Miranda, or Mirabel are sometimes used as Mira's official-document version. International forms include Mira (essentially identical across Slavic/Spanish/Italian/Hindi), Mirabai (Hindi original), Miryam (Hebrew original), and the broader Miriam/Miranda family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Mira
US Popularity History (2001–2025)
Annual US births named Mira by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 916 girls named Mira (girl rank #335 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.
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Where in the US Is Mira 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 Mira the strongest states are District of Columbia, North Dakota, Washington.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | #155 | 61 |
| 2 | North Dakota | #225 | 16 |
| 3 | Washington | #231 | 290 |
| 4 | Michigan | #246 | 360 |
| 5 | Oregon | #284 | 135 |
| 6 | Minnesota | #289 | 187 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | #308 | 182 |
| 8 | New York | #362 | 453 |
| 9 | Nebraska | #372 | 35 |
| 10 | California | #372 | 910 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #817 | 341 |
| 2 | Oklahoma | #794 | 16 |
| 3 | Georgia | #793 | 90 |
| 4 | Alabama | #787 | 24 |
| 5 | Florida | #760 | 209 |
| 6 | South Carolina | #752 | 24 |
| 7 | Louisiana | #701 | 28 |
| 8 | Tennessee | #641 | 98 |
| 9 | Kentucky | #639 | 63 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #629 | 160 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Mira in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Mira?
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 Mira to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Mira 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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