girl's name
Kira
KEER-uh
- Origin Russian
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 4
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 50,957
the United States
#385
2025 births
Kira has three unrelated sources — the Irish for dark, a Russian feminine of the Persian for lord, and a Japanese word for glittering — and nothing in the spelling tells you which one a given Kira belongs to.
- Kira is a name of Russian origin.
- Peaked in 2005, when 1,396 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,139 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1938.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Kira over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1930s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1930s | 5 |
| 1940s | 5 |
| 1950s | 88 |
| 1960s | 627 |
| 1970s | 1,505 |
| 1980s | 5,478 |
| 1990s | 7,439 |
| 2000s | 12,096 |
| 2010s | 8,979 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 4,634 |
What Kira means
Kira means dark from the Irish, lady or mistress from the Russian, or glittering from the Japanese. Three separate languages arrived at the same four letters independently.
Where Kira comes from
Kira has at least three origins. The Irish ciar means dark, which also gives Ciara and Keira, elsewhere on this site. The Russian Kira is the feminine of Kyros, the Greek form of the Persian royal name Cyrus, generally read as lord or far-sighted. The Japanese kira-kira is an onomatopoeic word for glittering, and Kira is used as a name there independently. None of the three is derived from the others.
Kira in use
Kira peaked in the United States in 2005, when 1,396 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It now ranks 338th in Ireland on 12 births, 385th in the United States on 801, 452nd in England and Wales on 89 and 853rd in France on 45, across 50,957 lifetime births in five of the seven markets we track. England and Wales ran its own peak of 337 births in 2000.
How popular is Kira?
In 2025, Kira was given to 801 babies in the United States, ranking #385 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Kira 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.
Names that peaked alongside Kira
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Kira also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Kira over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Kira 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 Kira
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Kira — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Kira
What does the name Kira mean?
Dark from the Irish, lady from the Russian, or glittering from the Japanese — three unrelated sources.
Is Kira related to Cyrus?
The Russian line is — Kira is the feminine of Kyros, the Greek form of Cyrus.
Is Keira the same name?
Keira is specifically the Irish line. Kira may or may not be.
How popular is Kira?
385th in the United States, and stable rather than falling in our data.
Is Kira a girl's or a boy's name?
Kira is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Kira?
Kira has 2 syllables.
Is Kira a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Kira currently ranks #290 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.