Chara
Chara was given to 6 girls in 2025, #13,542 among girls’ names; 1,012 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Chara by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Chara?
#13,542 among girls’ names, 2025
Chara fell from #9,064 in 2015 to #13,542 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 6.7 to 3.7 per million.
39 babies in 1982, the peak
Chara peaked in 1982, when 39 girls were given it, #2,459 among girls’ names. The 6 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #13,542 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 7 | #12,406 | 4.4 |
| 2022 | 5 | #15,791 | 3.0 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,328 | 4.9 |
| 2020 | 11 | #9,063 | 6.8 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,247 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 10 | #9,972 | 5.9 |
| 2017 | 5 | #16,378 | 2.9 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,538 | 6.2 |
| 2015 | 12 | #9,064 | 6.7 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 8 | #12,176 | 4.5 |
| 2013 | 15 | #7,837 | 8.5 |
| 2012 | 7 | #13,780 | 4.0 |
| 2011 | 9 | #11,369 | 5.1 |
| 2010 | 8 | #12,513 | 4.5 |
| 2009 | 7 | #13,991 | 3.8 |
| 2008 | 7 | #14,137 | 3.7 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,273 | 5.7 |
| 2006 | 12 | #9,411 | 6.3 |
| 2005 | 6 | #14,845 | 3.2 |
| 2004 | 9 | #10,859 | 4.9 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,667 | 7.7 |
| 2002 | 16 | #6,760 | 8.9 |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,509 | 5.6 |
| 2000 | 16 | #6,538 | 8.8 |
| 1999 | 7 | #11,600 | 3.9 |
| 1998 | 13 | #7,180 | 7.4 |
| 1997 | 13 | #6,922 | 7.5 |
| 1996 | 12 | #7,222 | 6.8 |
| 1995 | 14 | #6,315 | 8.0 |
| 1994 | 9 | #8,951 | 5.0 |
| 1993 | 17 | #5,455 | 9.4 |
| 1992 | 18 | #5,301 | 9.8 |
| 1991 | 23 | #4,357 | 12.3 |
| 1990 | 18 | #5,090 | 9.5 |
| 1989 | 17 | #5,078 | 9.2 |
| 1988 | 24 | #3,810 | 13.5 |
| 1987 | 32 | #2,975 | 18.4 |
| 1986 | 19 | #4,215 | 11.1 |
| 1985 | 24 | #3,530 | 13.9 |
| 1984 | 39 | #2,432 | 23.2 |
| 1983 | 21 | #3,701 | 12.6 |
| 1982 | 39 | #2,459 | 23.0 |
| 1981 | 24 | #3,446 | 14.4 |
| 1980 | 36 | #2,612 | 21.7 |
| 1979 | 30 | #2,872 | 18.7 |
| 1978 | 35 | #2,479 | 22.8 |
| 1977 | 36 | #2,429 | 23.5 |
| 1976 | 37 | #2,262 | 25.3 |
| 1975 | 31 | #2,522 | 21.3 |
| 1974 | 28 | #2,625 | 19.1 |
| 1973 | 20 | #3,245 | 13.7 |
| 1972 | 18 | #3,423 | 11.8 |
| 1971 | 18 | #3,529 | 10.8 |
| 1970 | 15 | #3,893 | 8.6 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,515 | 4.7 |
| 1968 | 9 | #4,826 | 5.5 |
| 1967 | 7 | #5,532 | 4.2 |
| 1966 | 14 | #3,423 | 8.3 |
| 1964 | 7 | #5,555 | 3.7 |
| 1963 | 5 | #6,725 | 2.6 |
| 1962 | 6 | #5,947 | 3.1 |
| 1961 | 9 | #4,584 | 4.5 |
| 1960 | 8 | #4,819 | 4.0 |
| 1959 | 6 | #5,644 | 3.0 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,084 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Chara a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Chara has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 66 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Chara: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Chara, and how old are they?
An estimated 971 Americans named Chara and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 41 years old and half are between 27 and 49. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,115 people named Chara (1,099 women and girls, 16 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 948 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 3,588 babies since 1880, Chara is the second most given (28% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Chara
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Chara and names like it
- Compare Chara and ChariBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sChara peaked in 1982.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Chara since 1910.
- The top names of 1982The year the most babies were named Chara.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Chara alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with CMost given first.