girl's name
Mara
MAR-uh
- Origin Hebrew
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 4
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 28,256
the United States
#589
2025 births
Mara is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "bitter," and it is the name Naomi asks to be called after losing her family. It ranks 105th in Scotland and 589th in the United States.
- Mara is a name of Hebrew origin.
- Peaked in 2021, when 568 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 6,644 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1892.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Mara over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1890s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1890s | 6 |
| 1910s | 67 |
| 1920s | 130 |
| 1930s | 145 |
| 1940s | 327 |
| 1950s | 1,417 |
| 1960s | 1,940 |
| 1970s | 2,565 |
| 1980s | 2,639 |
| 1990s | 3,889 |
| 2000s | 4,038 |
| 2010s | 3,852 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 3,039 |
What Mara means
Mara means bitter, from the Hebrew marah. It is not a description of a person but a statement about circumstance — the Book of Ruth uses it as a deliberate rejection of a name meaning pleasantness.
Where Mara comes from
Mara comes from the Hebrew marah, bitter. In the Book of Ruth, Naomi returns to Bethlehem having lost her husband and both sons and tells the women not to call her Naomi — pleasantness — but Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with her. The name is therefore an act of renaming in grief, which makes its modern use as a given name slightly unexpected. Mara reaches modern European use down several other lines too: it is a Slavic short form of Marija, an Italian and Romanian form of Maria, and in Buddhist tradition Mara is the demon who tempts the Buddha under the bodhi tree, from a Sanskrit root meaning death. The Marah of Exodus, where the Israelites find water too bitter to drink, is the same Hebrew word.
Mara in use
Mara ranks 105th in Scotland with 42 births in 2024 and 589th in the United States with 499 births, and it is rising in our data with a peak in 2021. Our records carry it from 1892. It appears in every market we hold — 351st in Ireland, 541st in England and Wales, 698th in France — which is unusually wide reach for a four-letter biblical name.
How popular is Mara?
In 2025, Mara was given to 499 babies in the United States, ranking #589 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Mara 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 Mara
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Mara also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Mara over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Mara 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.
- Arabic
- Maria
- Breton
- Mari
- Catalan
- Maria
- Danish
- Maria
- Estonian
- Mari
- Finnish
- Mari
- German
- Maria
- Greek
- Maria
- Hungarian
- Mari
- Icelandic
- Mari
- Italian
- Maria
- Latin
- Maria
- Norwegian
- Mari
- Polish
- Maria
- Portuguese
- Maria
- Romanian
- Maria
- Seediq
- Mari
- Welsh
- Mari
- Other forms
- Forms we hold no single language for — some are used across several, some are simply spelled differently.
- Marah
Sibling names for Mara
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Mara — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Mara
What does the name Mara mean?
Mara means "bitter," from the Hebrew marah.
Why does Naomi call herself Mara?
Having lost her husband and sons, she rejects a name meaning pleasantness for one meaning bitter.
Is Mara related to Maria?
As a Slavic, Italian and Romanian short form, yes — but that is a separate line from the Hebrew marah.
How popular is Mara?
105th in Scotland and 589th in the United States.
Is Mara a girl's or a boy's name?
Mara is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Mara?
Mara has 2 syllables.
Is Mara a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Mara currently ranks #105 in the United States. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.