MY-rah
Myra
Top 1000
About Myra
As with many grandmother-y names, this choice may be coming back into style.
Myra was invented in the seventeenth century by a poet called Fulke Greville as a short form of Miranda--or perhaps an anagram of Mary-- and it quickly caught on with other poets and romantic novelists, particularly popular with the Scots. There were leading characters named Myra in Sinclair Lewis's novel Babbitt and in Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. Later it was the name of the central character in Gore Vidal's 1968 Myra Breckinridge, and plays a minor role in the Divergent. trilogy.
Myra was as high as Number 158 in the 1880s. A notable namesake is the great pianist, Dame Myra Hess.
Pronounced MY-rah.
As of October 2026, Myra ranked #663 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #158 in 1880, Nameberry popularity #586.
Editor's take: The name Myra is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "sweet-smelling oil".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #639 | 448 | 250.8 |
| 2015 | #600 | 493 | 276.2 |
| 2016 | #552 | 564 | 318.3 |
| 2017 | #509 | 616 | 356.8 |
| 2018 | #491 | 634 | 372.7 |
| 2019 | #537 | 572 | 340.8 |
| 2020 | #556 | 533 | 329.7 |
| 2021 | #592 | 507 | 309 |
| 2022 | #563 | 540 | 329.2 |
| 2023 | #594 | 505 | 314.7 |
| 2024 | #646 | 453 | 279.6 |
| 2025 | #663 | 429 | 266.9 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Myra.
Famous Myras
- (Julia) Myra Hess
English pianist
- Myra Nathalie Hiatt Kraft
American philanthropist
- Myra Ellen "Tori" Amos
American singer,songwriter
- Myra Maybelle Shirley
birth name of American Western outlaw Belle Starr
- Myra Colby Bradwell
American lawyer, publisher and activist
- Myra Taylor (born Myra Jardine Render)
American R&B singer
- Myra MacPherson
American historian and author
- Myra Soble
Russian spy
- Myra (born Mayra Caról Ambriz Quintana)
American pop singer
- Myra M. Bennett
Canadian pioneering nurse
- Myra Ellen Robinson Crownover
American politician from Texas
- Florence Myra Zamparelli
daughter of Jennifer Maguire & Lauterio Zamparelli
Myra in pop culture
- Myra Breckinridge
main character of Gore Vidal's gender,bending satirical novel
- Myra Driscoll Henshawe
character in Willa Cather's "My Mortal Enemy" (1926)
- Myra Hope
Ashburn, wealthy friend to Dr. Gwyneth Cornwell in "The Widow" (1957) by Francis King
- Myra Celestina Philomena Portia McQueen
character on British soap "Hollyoaks"
- Myra Monkhouse
girlfriend to Steve Urkel on TV's "Family Matters"
- Myra
minor character on TV's "Suits"
- Myra
minor character in the Divergent series
- Myra
1964 song by The Seekers
- Myra Hanson Castellanos
character in the video game series "The Evil Within"