Kara
Kara was given to 226 girls in 2025, #1,075 among girls’ names; 102,025 Americans have been recorded with it since 1896 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 98,100 Americans named Kara and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 38 years old and half are between 28 and 47.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kara by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kara mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kara is “a female given name.”
Variant of Cara.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kara?
#1,075 among girls’ names, 2025
Kara fell from #507 in 2015 to #1,075 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.35 to 0.14 per 1,000.
3,281 babies in 1991, the peak
Kara peaked in 1991, when 3,281 girls were given it, #106 among girls’ names. The 226 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 226 | #1,075 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 261 | #992 | 0.16 |
| 2023 | 283 | #939 | 0.18 |
| 2022 | 319 | #872 | 0.19 |
| 2021 | 373 | #765 | 0.23 |
| 2020 | 427 | #672 | 0.26 |
| 2019 | 530 | #577 | 0.32 |
| 2018 | 621 | #501 | 0.37 |
| 2017 | 610 | #516 | 0.35 |
| 2016 | 626 | #499 | 0.35 |
Every recorded year (97)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 624 | #507 | 0.35 |
| 2014 | 731 | #440 | 0.41 |
| 2013 | 834 | #374 | 0.48 |
| 2012 | 860 | #364 | 0.49 |
| 2011 | 938 | #339 | 0.53 |
| 2010 | 1,113 | #292 | 0.63 |
| 2009 | 1,391 | #238 | 0.76 |
| 2008 | 1,338 | #257 | 0.71 |
| 2007 | 1,171 | #289 | 0.61 |
| 2006 | 1,192 | #282 | 0.63 |
| 2005 | 1,230 | #267 | 0.67 |
| 2004 | 1,285 | #249 | 0.70 |
| 2003 | 1,356 | #239 | 0.74 |
| 2002 | 1,403 | #223 | 0.78 |
| 2001 | 1,476 | #216 | 0.82 |
| 2000 | 1,649 | #192 | 0.91 |
| 1999 | 1,688 | #183 | 1.0 |
| 1998 | 1,711 | #176 | 1.0 |
| 1997 | 1,907 | #161 | 1.1 |
| 1996 | 1,909 | #165 | 1.1 |
| 1995 | 2,148 | #152 | 1.2 |
| 1994 | 2,376 | #134 | 1.3 |
| 1993 | 2,527 | #131 | 1.4 |
| 1992 | 2,931 | #114 | 1.6 |
| 1991 | 3,281 | #106 | 1.7 |
| 1990 | 3,036 | #110 | 1.6 |
| 1989 | 3,121 | #101 | 1.7 |
| 1988 | 3,039 | #95 | 1.7 |
| 1987 | 2,699 | #104 | 1.6 |
| 1986 | 2,722 | #102 | 1.6 |
| 1985 | 2,811 | #98 | 1.6 |
| 1984 | 2,855 | #95 | 1.7 |
| 1983 | 2,714 | #101 | 1.6 |
| 1982 | 2,661 | #113 | 1.6 |
| 1981 | 2,439 | #121 | 1.5 |
| 1980 | 2,445 | #127 | 1.5 |
| 1979 | 2,300 | #125 | 1.4 |
| 1978 | 2,290 | #127 | 1.5 |
| 1977 | 2,415 | #120 | 1.6 |
| 1976 | 2,037 | #138 | 1.4 |
| 1975 | 2,358 | #118 | 1.6 |
| 1974 | 2,304 | #125 | 1.6 |
| 1973 | 1,630 | #167 | 1.1 |
| 1972 | 1,454 | #196 | 1.0 |
| 1971 | 1,469 | #204 | 0.88 |
| 1970 | 1,503 | #209 | 0.86 |
| 1969 | 1,354 | #222 | 0.80 |
| 1968 | 908 | #290 | 0.55 |
| 1967 | 949 | #275 | 0.57 |
| 1966 | 580 | #380 | 0.34 |
| 1965 | 798 | #319 | 0.45 |
| 1964 | 663 | #367 | 0.35 |
| 1963 | 817 | #329 | 0.42 |
| 1962 | 516 | #429 | 0.26 |
| 1961 | 319 | #555 | 0.16 |
| 1960 | 135 | #910 | 0.07 |
| 1959 | 111 | #1,001 | 0.05 |
| 1958 | 122 | #934 | 0.06 |
| 1957 | 92 | #1,092 | 0.04 |
| 1956 | 116 | #936 | 0.06 |
| 1955 | 83 | #1,099 | 0.04 |
| 1954 | 53 | #1,387 | 0.03 |
| 1953 | 54 | #1,321 | 0.03 |
| 1952 | 40 | #1,532 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 40 | #1,492 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 32 | #1,663 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 22 | #2,097 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 26 | #1,878 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 39 | #1,515 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 25 | #1,830 | 0.02 |
| 1945 | 19 | #1,958 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 20 | #1,940 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 17 | #2,192 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 24 | #1,733 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 17 | #2,054 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 12 | #2,491 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 13 | #2,354 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 13 | #2,388 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 15 | #2,140 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,545 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 8 | #3,306 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 6 | #4,050 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 8 | #3,267 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 6 | #4,158 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,671 | under 0.01 |
| 1919 | 7 | #4,042 | 0.01 |
| 1896 | 5 | #1,712 | 0.02 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kara a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kara has been given almost only to girls: 282 boys in 99 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kara: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kara, and how old are they?
98,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 102,025 Americans ever recorded as Kara. The median Kara alive today is 38 years old; half are between 28 and 47.
The 2020 Census counted 93,447 people named Kara (93,261 women and girls, 186 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 97,391 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 77 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,800 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 25,200 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 42,200 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 21,500 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 6,420 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Kara born?
The states with the most babies named Kara are California, Texas and Ohio, with 33% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 25 | #1,068 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 21 | #1,245 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 15 | #655 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,206 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 11 | #885 | 0.6× |
| New York | 9 | #1,459 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #967 | 1.2× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #804 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,070 | 1.1× |
| Indiana | 8 | #762 | 1.4× |
Where Kara is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kara is most over-represented in Indiana: since 1910 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Kara with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 248,947 babies since 1880, Kara is the most given (41% of them). In 2025 it was given to 226 of their 825 babies (27%), the second most given that year.
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 Kara
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 Kara and names like it
- Compare Kara and KariBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKara peaked in 1991.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kara since 1910.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Kara.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kara alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.