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Meara

#3,091 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Meara has been given to 1,436 babies in the U.S. since 1973. In 2025 it ranked #3,091 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2015, with 72 recorded.

Babies named Meara, 2025

1 in 62,600

Meara over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Meara: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Meara means

Meara is a given name.

The naming story behind Meara

Charlotte M. Yonge’s 1884 History of Christian Names includes the exact spelling Meara in its glossary. The entry labels it masculine and points to printed page(s) 259.

The glossary’s abbreviated description reads: “Irish, Kelt. merry”. This is the historical author’s wording, including its language abbreviations and any proposed interpretation. It is presented as historical evidence, not as a verified modern translation. Victorian classifications and root explanations can differ from later linguistic research.

For Meara, the current short meaning therefore remains unconfirmed. Establishing its modern etymology requires a current reference that documents the exact form and its relationship to the proposed earlier words.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,436 girls were recorded with the name Meara between 1973 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 72 in 2015; its best national rank was #2,519 in 2015.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,980 in 2020 to #3,091 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,519 in 2015 to #3,091 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Meara?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 62,600
53 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 30,300
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,091
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
43,358 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Meara sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 43,358 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Meara. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mearas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Meara was born before 2011 — so the typical Meara is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
37.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
76.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,436
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 37.6% of all recorded uses (540).

Is Meara rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+1,173
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+889
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−572
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.74×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
73.6%
Peak was 2015 (72)
Years since peak
10
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,519
2015

Spellings of Meara

Meara is not the most common spelling — Mary is, with 53.9% against Meara's 0.02%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Meara is used

Across 1910–2025, Meara was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 484,794 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Florida1 in —
  3. 3Illinois1 in —
  4. 4Indiana1 in —
  5. 5Maryland1 in —
  6. 6Michigan1 in —
  7. 7New York1 in —
  8. 8Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Meara has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Meara around the world

Where Meara ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2005–2019
    #4,686
    in 2019
  • Northern Ireland
    2020–2025
    #334
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2015–2024
    #898
    in 2024
  • France
    2023–2023
    #7,009
    in 2023
  • Canada
    1998–2024
    #3,457
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Meara by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,091
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 889
Best rank ever
#2,519
2015
Peak year
2015
72 that year
First recorded
1973
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,436
Count in 2025
53

Names similar to Meara

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MeahAtaraNiaraElaraCharaSiaraSwaraMeaAlaraLiaraDiaraInaraZaaraAzaraImaraAdaraKlaraTakaraKataraDharaKeiaraKyaraAinaraMeagen

Sibling names for Meara

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Meara

Top names of 2015, Meara's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2015Girls' names starting with M