Ira
- Pronunciation
- [I-ra]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Descendant
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Ira
Ira is a Hebrew biblical name, most plausibly understood as deriving from a root meaning "watchful" or "descendant." It appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name of Ira the Ithrite, one of the elite warriors in King David's service, giving it solid and ancient Old Testament credentials. The name traveled into English-speaking use through the Puritan and Protestant traditions of biblical naming that were strong in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America, when parents drew heavily from the Hebrew scriptures for names that were both pious and distinctive. Ira has maintained a quiet, consistent presence in American masculine naming ever since, cycling from widespread use to niche appeal and back again.
Ira appears in the US Social Security top-1000 from 1880 — the first year of SSA records — and reached its best rank of #57 in 1881. It has demonstrated extraordinary longevity, remaining in the top-1000 through 2024, where it ranked #975 with 230 births that year. Over its full run it accumulated over 6,000 top-1000 births — a modest total that reflects its consistent niche appeal rather than any single era of mass popularity.
Ira has experienced a quiet modern revival as part of a broader appreciation for short, biblical, vintage masculine names with genuine depth. Its two clean syllables and deep Hebrew heritage give it an understated dignity that wears well.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Ira
US Popularity History (1880–2025)
Annual US births named Ira by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2021 with 301 boys named Ira (boy rank #809 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #822 for boys (301 US births). That's 13 places below its 2021 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 Ira Most Popular?
Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Ira the strongest states are Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon.
Strongest boys-name states
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | #948 | 26 |
| 2 | California | #948 | 95 |
| 3 | Illinois | #920 | 37 |
| 4 | Virginia | #908 | 36 |
| 5 | Tennessee | #850 | 48 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | #815 | 78 |
| 7 | North Carolina | #806 | 44 |
| 8 | Michigan | #744 | 78 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #699 | 22 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #687 | 26 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Ira in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Ira?
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 Ira to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Ira against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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