Kira
Kira was given to 801 girls in 2025, #385 among girls’ names; 40,856 Americans have been recorded with it since 1938 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 40,100 Americans named Kira and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 13 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kira by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kira mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kira is “a female given name from Persian or Irish.”
Variant of Kyra or borrowed from Russian Ки́ра (Kíra), ultimately from Persian کوروش (Kūrūš). Also used as a respelling of Ciara, from Irish [Term?].
/kiːrə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kira?
#385 among girls’ names, 2025
Kira fell from #361 in 2015 to #385 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.51 to 0.50 per 1,000.
1,396 babies in 2005, the peak
Kira peaked in 2005, when 1,396 babies were given it (1,391 girls, #241 among girls’ names). The 801 births of 2025 are 57% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 801 | #385 | 0.50 |
| 2024 | 689 | #455 | 0.43 |
| 2023 | 721 | #429 | 0.45 |
| 2022 | 801 | #390 | 0.49 |
| 2021 | 814 | #384 | 0.50 |
| 2020 | 808 | #385 | 0.50 |
| 2019 | 818 | #383 | 0.49 |
| 2018 | 829 | #379 | 0.49 |
| 2017 | 821 | #379 | 0.48 |
| 2016 | 881 | #369 | 0.50 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 910 | #361 | 0.51 |
| 2014 | 950 | #349 | 0.53 |
| 2013 | 902 | #355 | 0.51 |
| 2012 | 886 | #358 | 0.50 |
| 2011 | 946 | #335 | 0.54 |
| 2010 | 1,036 | #309 | 0.58 |
| 2009 | 1,117 | #296 | 0.61 |
| 2008 | 1,370 | #251 | 0.72 |
| 2007 | 1,266 | #269 | 0.66 |
| 2006 | 1,362 | #249 | 0.72 |
| 2005 | 1,391 | #241 | 0.75 |
| 2004 | 1,184 | #275 | 0.64 |
| 2003 | 1,084 | #287 | 0.59 |
| 2002 | 1,126 | #277 | 0.63 |
| 2001 | 1,093 | #287 | 0.61 |
| 2000 | 1,092 | #292 | 0.60 |
| 1999 | 1,106 | #284 | 0.62 |
| 1998 | 1,136 | #274 | 0.64 |
| 1997 | 892 | #324 | 0.51 |
| 1996 | 725 | #372 | 0.41 |
| 1995 | 682 | #388 | 0.39 |
| 1994 | 676 | #379 | 0.38 |
| 1993 | 656 | #388 | 0.36 |
| 1992 | 586 | #430 | 0.32 |
| 1991 | 531 | #461 | 0.28 |
| 1990 | 449 | #527 | 0.24 |
| 1989 | 476 | #494 | 0.26 |
| 1988 | 559 | #417 | 0.31 |
| 1987 | 530 | #421 | 0.30 |
| 1986 | 492 | #436 | 0.29 |
| 1985 | 591 | #385 | 0.34 |
| 1984 | 766 | #310 | 0.45 |
| 1983 | 555 | #395 | 0.33 |
| 1982 | 891 | #274 | 0.53 |
| 1981 | 393 | #508 | 0.24 |
| 1980 | 209 | #787 | 0.13 |
| 1979 | 152 | #958 | 0.09 |
| 1978 | 134 | #1,018 | 0.09 |
| 1977 | 144 | #962 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 146 | #905 | 0.10 |
| 1975 | 258 | #613 | 0.18 |
| 1974 | 193 | #740 | 0.13 |
| 1973 | 123 | #969 | 0.08 |
| 1972 | 104 | #1,092 | 0.07 |
| 1971 | 130 | #976 | 0.08 |
| 1970 | 121 | #1,022 | 0.07 |
| 1969 | 119 | #991 | 0.07 |
| 1968 | 89 | #1,139 | 0.05 |
| 1967 | 81 | #1,184 | 0.05 |
| 1966 | 85 | #1,155 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 58 | #1,452 | 0.03 |
| 1964 | 63 | #1,430 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 44 | #1,742 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 33 | #2,048 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 28 | #2,271 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 27 | #2,270 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 13 | #3,528 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 22 | #2,481 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 12 | #3,579 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 17 | #2,876 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,515 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 7 | #4,906 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 11 | #3,461 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,629 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,660 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kira a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kira has been given almost only to girls: 27 boys in 75 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kira: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kira, and how old are they?
40,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 40,856 Americans ever recorded as Kira. The median Kira alive today is 22 years old; half are between 13 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 35,464 people named Kira (35,357 women and girls, 107 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 35,899 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 242 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,000 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 9,310 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 17,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,700 |
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 Kira born?
The states with the most babies named Kira are California, Texas and Florida, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 166 | #202 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 58 | #548 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 48 | #390 | 0.9× |
| New York | 46 | #374 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 37 | #298 | 1.3× |
| Washington | 31 | #233 | 1.4× |
| Michigan | 22 | #400 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 22 | #366 | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 22 | #267 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 21 | #488 | 0.8× |
Where Kira is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kira is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1938 it was given 2.9 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 Kira 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 224,092 babies since 1880, Kira is the second most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 801 of their 2,911 babies (28%), again the second most given.
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 Kira
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 Kira and names like it
- Compare Kira and KiaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKira peaked in 2005.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kira since 1910.
- Persian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kira: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Kira.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kira alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.