Meaning not yet researched.
Kara: US girls given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 226 in 2025. Its best rank was #95 in 1988.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #95 in 1988; #1,075 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Kara in 2025 was a girl.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#1,075 for US girls in 2025. Its best year was 1988, at #95.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Kara: US girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 226 girls in 2025. Peak: #95 in 1988 · most girls in one year: 3,281 (1991).
In 2025, 226 US girls were named Kara, making it the 1,075th most common girls’ name of the year, down 83 places from #992 in 2024. That is 35 fewer than the 261 girls named Kara in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #95, reached in 1988. The most girls given the name in a single year was 3,281, in 1991. For comparison, it was #507 in 2015 and #1,664 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Kara in 99 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1896 with 5 babies. In all, 102,025 US babies have been given the name, 99.7% of them girls and 0.3% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1980s, with 27,629 babies named Kara.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 4,276 US girls were named Kara; the busiest of those years was 2016, with 626. In 2025 that was about 1 in 7,112 of the girls in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Kara ranked highest in Ohio in 2025, at #655 for girls there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Kiara (57,289 babies since 1880), Cara (53,367 babies since 1880), Kaira (3,335 babies since 1880) and Karah (3,274 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Carra, Karra and Caira are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Rare spellings summarised here: Carra (1,353), Karra (1,054), Caira (891), Carah (881), Kayra (871), Karrah (833), Kairah (227), Caera (66), Karai (65), Karaya (43), Kayora (22), Kaiora (19), and more.
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Kara in the open dataset we use.
Kara is listed as a nickname for Carol.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US girls. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five girls got the name, so 32 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 15 | #655 | #340 |
| Missouri | 8 | #686 | #365 |
| Kentucky | 6 | #696 | #350 |
| Indiana | 8 | #762 | #275 |
| Alabama | 6 | #768 | #579 |
| Arizona | 8 | #783 | #475 |
| New Jersey | 9 | #804 | #463 |
| Colorado | 6 | #848 | #831 |
| South Carolina | 5 | #849 | #306 |
| Georgia | 11 | #885 | #640 |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #967 | #385 |
| California | 25 | #1,068 | #539 |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,070 | #379 |
| Michigan | 6 | #1,138 | #375 |
| Washington | 5 | #1,139 | #575 |
| Florida | 12 | #1,206 | #545 |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,208 | #489 |
| Texas | 21 | #1,245 | #731 |
| New York | 9 | #1,459 | #609 |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 226 | #1,075 | — | — |
| 2024 | 261 | #992 | — | — |
| 2023 | 283 | #939 | — | — |
| 2022 | 319 | #872 | — | — |
| 2021 | 373 | #765 | — | — |
| 2020 | 427 | #672 | — | — |
| 2019 | 530 | #577 | — | — |
| 2018 | 621 | #501 | — | — |
| 2017 | 610 | #516 | — | — |
| 2016 | 626 | #499 | — | — |
| 2015 | 624 | #507 | — | — |
| 2014 | 731 | #440 | — | — |
| 2013 | 834 | #374 | — | — |
| 2012 | 860 | #364 | — | — |
| 2011 | 938 | #339 | — | — |
| 2010 | 1,113 | #292 | — | — |
| 2009 | 1,391 | #238 | — | — |
| 2008 | 1,338 | #257 | — | — |
| 2007 | 1,171 | #289 | — | — |
| 2006 | 1,192 | #282 | — | — |
| 2005 | 1,230 | #267 | — | — |
| 2004 | 1,285 | #249 | 8 | #8,537 |
| 2003 | 1,356 | #239 | — | — |
| 2002 | 1,403 | #223 | — | — |
| 2001 | 1,476 | #216 | — | — |
| 2000 | 1,649 | #192 | — | — |
| 1999 | 1,688 | #183 | — | — |
| 1998 | 1,711 | #176 | — | — |
| 1997 | 1,907 | #161 | 5 | #10,031 |
| 1996 | 1,909 | #165 | — | — |
| 1995 | 2,148 | #152 | — | — |
| 1994 | 2,376 | #134 | 9 | #6,100 |
| 1993 | 2,527 | #131 | — | — |
| 1992 | 2,931 | #114 | 5 | #9,117 |
| 1991 | 3,281 | #106 | — | — |
| 1990 | 3,036 | #110 | 5 | #8,807 |
| 1989 | 3,121 | #101 | 15 | #3,726 |
| 1988 | 3,039 | #95 | 6 | #6,850 |
| 1987 | 2,699 | #104 | 13 | #3,630 |
| 1986 | 2,722 | #102 | 17 | #2,949 |
| 1985 | 2,811 | #98 | 13 | #3,512 |
| 1984 | 2,855 | #95 | 8 | #4,771 |
| 1983 | 2,714 | #101 | 17 | #2,737 |
| 1982 | 2,661 | #113 | 13 | #3,399 |
| 1981 | 2,439 | #121 | 8 | #4,742 |
| 1980 | 2,445 | #127 | 13 | #3,347 |
| 1979 | 2,300 | #125 | 12 | #3,455 |
| 1978 | 2,290 | #127 | — | — |
| 1977 | 2,415 | #120 | 11 | #3,487 |
| 1976 | 2,037 | #138 | 8 | #4,209 |
| 1975 | 2,358 | #118 | 14 | #2,832 |
| 1974 | 2,304 | #125 | 9 | #3,703 |
| 1973 | 1,630 | #167 | — | — |
| 1972 | 1,454 | #196 | 6 | #4,719 |
| 1971 | 1,469 | #204 | 5 | #5,287 |
| 1970 | 1,503 | #209 | 8 | #3,676 |
| 1969 | 1,354 | #222 | 7 | #3,766 |
| 1968 | 908 | #290 | 5 | #4,430 |
| 1967 | 949 | #275 | 6 | #3,768 |
| 1966 | 580 | #380 | — | — |
| 1965 | 798 | #319 | 6 | #3,720 |
| 1964 | 663 | #367 | — | — |
| 1963 | 817 | #329 | — | — |
| 1962 | 516 | #429 | 7 | #3,470 |
| 1961 | 319 | #555 | — | — |
| 1960 | 135 | #910 | — | — |
| 1959 | 111 | #1,002 | — | — |
| 1958 | 122 | #935 | — | — |
| 1957 | 92 | #1,093 | — | — |
| 1956 | 116 | #937 | — | — |
| 1955 | 83 | #1,100 | 5 | #4,134 |
| 1954 | 53 | #1,388 | 6 | #3,632 |
| 1953 | 54 | #1,322 | — | — |
| 1952 | 40 | #1,533 | — | — |
| 1951 | 40 | #1,493 | — | — |
| 1950 | 32 | #1,664 | — | — |
| 1949 | 22 | #2,098 | — | — |
| 1948 | 26 | #1,879 | — | — |
| 1947 | 39 | #1,516 | — | — |
| 1946 | 25 | #1,831 | — | — |
| 1945 | 19 | #1,959 | — | — |
| 1944 | 20 | #1,941 | — | — |
| 1943 | 17 | #2,193 | — | — |
| 1942 | 24 | #1,734 | — | — |
| 1941 | 17 | #2,054 | — | — |
| 1940 | 12 | #2,492 | — | — |
| 1939 | 13 | #2,354 | — | — |
| 1938 | 13 | #2,388 | — | — |
| 1937 | 15 | #2,140 | — | — |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,547 | — | — |
| 1935 | 8 | #3,308 | — | — |
| 1934 | 6 | #4,052 | — | — |
| 1933 | 8 | #3,268 | — | — |
| 1932 | 6 | #4,160 | — | — |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,673 | — | — |
| 1919 | 7 | #4,044 | — | — |
| 1916 | — | — | 6 | #3,692 |
| 1915 | — | — | 6 | #3,628 |
| 1896 | 5 | #1,713 | — | — |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).