girl's name
Cara
KAR-uh
- Origin Irish
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 4
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 72,036
Northern Ireland
#34
2024 births
Cara is a girl's name with two independent sources: the Italian cara, meaning "dear" or "beloved," and the Irish cara, meaning "friend." It ranks 34th in Northern Ireland and 52nd in Ireland.
- Cara is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in 1985, when 1,472 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 19,734 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1882.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Cara over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 63 |
| 1890s | 91 |
| 1900s | 113 |
| 1910s | 219 |
| 1920s | 281 |
| 1930s | 305 |
| 1940s | 492 |
| 1950s | 1,291 |
| 1960s | 5,779 |
| 1970s | 10,430 |
| 1980s | 13,317 |
| 1990s | 9,849 |
| 2000s | 6,034 |
| 2010s | 3,830 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,273 |
What Cara means
Cara means beloved in Italian and friend in Irish. Both readings are genuine and neither is a corruption of the other — the two languages arrived at the same four letters from unconnected roots.
Where Cara comes from
Cara has two separate origins that happen to coincide. The Italian cara is the feminine of caro, dear or beloved, from the Latin carus, and it works as a term of address before it works as a name — cara mia is ordinary Italian. The Irish cara means friend, from the Old Irish carae, and shares an ancient Indo-European root with the Latin word, but the two reached modern use down entirely different lines and neither borrowed from the other. English-speaking use began in the nineteenth century and drew on the Italian sense; Irish use is later and reads the name as native. A third association is geographic rather than linguistic: the Irish cara appears in place names, and Ciara, a quite different name meaning dark, is often confused with it. Cara also functions as a diminutive of Carys in Wales, from caru, to love.
Cara in use
Cara ranks 34th in Northern Ireland with 50 births in 2024 and 52nd in Ireland, and it is falling in our data from a peak in 1985. That timing places it with the wave of short Italian-sounding girls' names that did well across the English-speaking world in the 1980s. It holds 1,329th in the United States and 471st in England and Wales. Our records carry it from 1882.
How popular is Cara?
In 2025, Cara was given to 168 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Cara is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Cara is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Cára | Cára is a rare spelling of Cara, written with a fada and recorded 3 times, mostly in Ireland. | 3 |
Names that peaked alongside Cara
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Cara also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Cara over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Cara in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Cara
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Cara — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Cara
What does the name Cara mean?
Beloved in Italian and friend in Irish. Both are real; the two languages arrived at the word separately.
Is Cara an Irish name?
It is used as one, and cara is the ordinary Irish word for friend. Its English-speaking use began from the Italian sense.
Is Cara short for Ciara?
No. Ciara is a different name, from the Irish ciar, meaning dark.
How popular is Cara?
Thirty-fourth in Northern Ireland and 52nd in Ireland.
Is Cara a girl's or a boy's name?
Cara is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Cara?
Cara has 2 syllables.
Is Cara a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Cara currently ranks #34 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.