Cara

Latin, Italian, Irish, Spanish, and Portuguese

"dear; friend; face"

Cara Origin and Meaning

The name Cara is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "dear; friend; face".

Cara is a simple, sweet, Italian endearment that enjoyed its greatest popularity from the 1970s through the 1990s, reaching a high of Number 189 in 1977. Despite the rising celebrity of English model/actress Cara Delevingne, who played Enchantress in Suicide Squad, Cara dropped off the Top 1000 in the US in 2020, perhaps because it sounds too close to the dreaded Karen.

I Cara remains a highly popular choice in Ireland, perhaps used as an Anglicized form of the Irish Ciara or Ceara. the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited, the Cara character is French.

Damon Wayans took the endearment aspect even further when he named his now-grown daughter Cara Mia.

Cara Rank in US Top 1000

# 908 in the US

Cara Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 748 on Nameberry

Cara Popularity

• 908 US 2020
• 748 Nameberry 2024
• 265 Unique 2023
• 373 England 2021
• 130 Scotland 2023
• 28 Ireland 2023
• 333 Germany 2016

20 Names Similar to Cara

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Cara.

• Kara
• Brooke
• Catalina
• Alexa
• Alexandra
• Kira
• Mara
• Calla
• Lana
• Callie
• Carina
• Kate
• Cassandra
• Ellie
• Allegra
• Camilla
• Carmen
• Celia
• April
• Amy

Famous People Named Cara

• Cara Jocelyn Delevingne English model and actress
• Cara Jenkins English actress
• Cara Williams (born Bernice Kamiat) American actress
• Cara Black Zimbabwean tennis player
• Cara Seymour English actress
• Cara Elizabeth Dillon Irish singer
• Cara Lockwood American novelist
• Cara Pifko Canadian actress
• Cara Luft Canadian singer,songwriter
• Cara Hain Wakelin Canadian model and actress
• Cara Zavaleta American model and actress
• Cara Elizabeth DeLizia American actress
• Cara Readle Welsh actress
• Cara Renee Gorges Miss Kansas USA 2007
• Cara Elizabeth Quici American singer,songwriter
• Cara Buono American actress
• Cara Connolly (b. 1974) daughter of comedian Billy Connolly
• Cara Mia Dianne Wayans (b. 1987) daughter of actor/comedian Damon Wayans
• Cara Rose (b. 1989) daughter of baseball player Pete Rose
• Cara Ethel Kennedy Cuomo (b. 1995), daughter of politician Andrew Cuomo and Kerry Kennedy; granddaughter of politician Robert F. Kennedy; twin of sister Mariah Matilda
• Cara Nicole Gosselin (b. 2000) daughter of reality TV personalities Jon & Kate Gosselin
• Cara Morkel (b. 2011) daughter of cricketer Albie Morkel

Cara in Pop Culture

• Cara Irish Gaelic word for "friend", explaining why it's so popular in Ireland.
• Cara character in "Teen Idol" by Meg Cabot
• Cara character in the Divergent trilogy
• Cara Coburn character on TV's "The Tomorrow People"
• Cara Mason character in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
• Cara character in "Atlantia" by Ally Condie
• "Caraphernelia" a song by the band Pierce The Veil in which the title is a play on of the word paraphernalia and the name Cara
• Carasynthia "Cara" Dune character in Star Wars show "The Mandalorian"