Syra
Syra was given to 25 girls in 2025, #5,219 among girls’ names; 434 Americans have been recorded with it since 1988 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Syra by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Syra mean?
Wiktionary, Latin section
Syra is “a female given name from Ancient Greek, character in the play Mercator of Plautus”
Borrowed from Ancient Greek Σύρα (Súra). Contrast syrus (“syrian”).
[ˈsy.ra]
Meaning: Wiktionary, Latin section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Syra?
#5,219 among girls’ names, 2025
Syra rose from #10,777 in 2015 to #5,219 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 5.6 to 15.6 per million.
26 babies in 2021, the peak
Syra peaked in 2021, when 26 girls were given it, #5,076 among girls’ names. The 25 births of 2025 are 96% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 25 | #5,219 | 15.6 |
| 2024 | 22 | #5,768 | 13.6 |
| 2023 | 15 | #7,592 | 9.3 |
| 2022 | 26 | #5,154 | 15.9 |
| 2021 | 26 | #5,076 | 15.8 |
| 2020 | 15 | #7,527 | 9.3 |
| 2019 | 15 | #7,676 | 8.9 |
| 2018 | 13 | #8,552 | 7.6 |
| 2017 | 15 | #7,798 | 8.7 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,766 | 5.6 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 10 | #10,777 | 5.6 |
| 2014 | 14 | #8,438 | 7.8 |
| 2012 | 15 | #8,171 | 8.5 |
| 2011 | 21 | #6,307 | 11.9 |
| 2010 | 20 | #6,600 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 9 | #12,329 | 4.9 |
| 2008 | 19 | #7,035 | 10.0 |
| 2007 | 21 | #6,519 | 10.9 |
| 2006 | 12 | #9,841 | 6.3 |
| 2005 | 13 | #8,811 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 10 | #10,586 | 5.4 |
| 2003 | 18 | #6,545 | 9.9 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,990 | 5.0 |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,802 | 3.3 |
| 1999 | 8 | #11,241 | 4.5 |
| 1998 | 12 | #7,965 | 6.8 |
| 1997 | 10 | #8,945 | 5.7 |
| 1996 | 5 | #15,585 | 2.9 |
| 1994 | 5 | #15,484 | 2.8 |
| 1991 | 5 | #15,150 | 2.7 |
| 1989 | 5 | #14,291 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 5 | #13,628 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Syra a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Syra has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Syra: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Syra, and how old are they?
An estimated 430 Americans named Syra and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 5 and 21. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 394 people named Syra (391 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 306 born in the U.S. The Census count is 29% 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 9,555 babies since 1880, Syra is the sixth most given (4.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 25 of their 146 babies (17%), 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 Syra
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 Syra and names like it
- Compare Syra and SieraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSyra peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Syra since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Syra.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Syra alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.