Mara
The girl's name Mara has been in the national records since 1892, with 24,054 births to its name. In 2025 it ranked 587th. About 23,000 Maras are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 27.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Mara boys named Mara
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 24,054
- Estimated living today
- 23,000
- Median age today
- 27
- Peak year
- 2021
- Best rank
- 540th
- Rank in 2025
- 587th
- First recorded
- 1892
- Girls / boys
- 24,038 / 16
How old the living Maras are
born that year still alive today
Of the 24,054 babies given the name since 1892, about 23,000 are alive — 94 in every hundred. Roughly 7,600 of them are children and 1,500 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1998 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Hebrew
From Hebrew מָרָא (“bitterness”), derived from Hebrew מַר (“bitter”). The modern given name may also be shortened from Maria or Tamara.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Maras
- Mara Branković (1416–1487)15th century Serbian princess, daughter of Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene
- Mara Wilson (born 1987)American actress
- Mara Carfagna (born 1975)Italian politician
- Mara Santangelo (born 1981)Italian tennis player
- Māra Zālīte (born 1952)Latvian writer
- Mara Corday (1930–2025)American actor and model
- Mara Navarria (born 1985)Italian fencer
- Mara Venier (born 1950)Italian actress and television presenter
People named Mara with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Mara is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Mara is most concentrated in Minnesota (3.3×), Wisconsin (2.2×), Washington (1.7×), Colorado (1.5×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2021
The most popular girls’ names the year Mara peaked:
Mara elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain girls | Mara | 6,436 | 63rd |
| Italy girls | Mara | 3,017 | — |
| Switzerland girls | Mara | 2,769 | 49th |
| England and Wales girls | Mara | 1,215 | 369th |
| France girls | Mara | 1,050 | 697th |
| Belgium girls | Mara | 976 | 203rd |
| Scotland girls | Mara | 339 | 102nd |
| Ireland girls | Mara | 133 | 223rd |
| France boys | Mara | 105 | 2,380th |
| Northern Ireland girls | Mara | 25 | 290th |
| Poland girls | Mara | 4 birth registrations | 729th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Mara: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German girls | Switzerland | Mara | 2,467 | 0.198% | 36th |
| French girls | Switzerland | Mara | 238 | 0.055% | 91st |
| Italian girls | Switzerland | Mara | 48 | 0.074% | 32nd |
| Romansh girls | Switzerland | Mara | 16 | 0.430% | 1st |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Mara is most concentrated in Graubünden, where 0.36% of children were given it – 138 of them.
Mara: rank by region
In 2025, Mara was given 5 times or more in 2 regions of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Mara | 164 | 34 |
| Wallonia | Mara | 300 | 9 |
In 2025, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Mara appears in the lists for Province of Limburg (94th), Province of East Flanders (154th), Province of West Flanders (186th), Province of Flemish Brabant (193rd) and Province of Antwerp (204th).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Mara by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 404 | 41st |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Mara among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| the Netherlands girls | Mara | 2,899 | 4,016 |
| Finland girls | Mara | 30 | 43 |
| Finland boys | Mara | 10 | 15 |
| the Netherlands boys | Mara | — | 15 |
A count of people on a register – the Netherlands on 1 January 2018, Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Mara lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 9,857 women called Mara were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Women: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gipuzkoa | Mara | 585 | 1.561 | 134 |
| Pontevedra | Mara | 617 | 1.258 | 147 |
| Lugo | Mara | 147 | 0.876 | 184 |
| Asturias | Mara | 458 | 0.863 | 187 |
| Ourense | Mara | 120 | 0.756 | 209 |
| Coruña, A | Mara | 441 | 0.746 | 196 |
Listed in 52 of Spain's 52 provinces. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Mara against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.