Cara
2025 SSA
Below 5 births
About Cara
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 is also given to boys.
Pronounced KAR-uh.
As of October 2026, Cara ranked #1326 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #184 in 1985, Nameberry popularity #656.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank · girls | Births · girls | US rank · boys | Births · boys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #675 | 421 | — | 0 |
| 2015 | #730 | 389 | — | 0 |
| 2016 | #808 | 352 | — | 0 |
| 2017 | #861 | 318 | — | 0 |
| 2018 | #874 | 310 | — | 0 |
| 2019 | #1,020 | 252 | — | 0 |
| 2020 | #910 | 288 | — | 0 |
| 2021 | #1,024 | 248 | — | 0 |
| 2022 | #1,162 | 208 | — | 0 |
| 2023 | #1,262 | 182 | — | 0 |
| 2024 | #1,294 | 178 | — | 0 |
| 2025 | #1,326 | 168 | — | 0 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Cara.
Cara on lists
Famous Caras
- Cara Jocelyn DelevingneGirl
English model and actress
- Cara JenkinsGirl
English actress
- Cara Williams (born Bernice Kamiat)Girl
American actress
- Cara BlackGirl
Zimbabwean tennis player
- Cara SeymourGirl
English actress
- Cara Elizabeth DillonGirl
Irish singer
- Cara LockwoodGirl
American novelist
- Cara PifkoGirl
Canadian actress
- Cara LuftGirl
Canadian singer,songwriter
- Cara Hain WakelinGirl
Canadian model and actress
- Cara ZavaletaGirl
American model and actress
- Cara Elizabeth DeLiziaGirl
American actress
- Cara ReadleGirl
Welsh actress
- Cara Renee GorgesGirl
Miss Kansas USA 2007
- Cara Elizabeth QuiciGirl
American singer,songwriter
- Cara BuonoGirl
American actress
- Cara Connolly (b. 1974)Girl
daughter of comedian Billy Connolly
- Cara Mia Dianne Wayans (b. 1987)Girl
daughter of actor/comedian Damon Wayans
- Cara Rose (b. 1989)Girl
daughter of baseball player Pete Rose
- Cara Ethel KennedyGirl
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)Girl
daughter of reality TV personalities Jon & Kate Gosselin
- Cara Morkel (b. 2011)Girl
daughter of cricketer Albie Morkel
Cara in pop culture
- CaraGirl
Irish Gaelic word for "friend", explaining why it's so popular in Ireland.
- CaraGirl
character in "Teen Idol" by Meg Cabot
- CaraGirl
character in the Divergent trilogy
- Cara CoburnGirl
character on TV's "The Tomorrow People"
- Cara MasonGirl
character in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
- CaraGirl
character in "Atlantia" by Ally Condie
- "Caraphernelia"Girl
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" DuneGirl
character in Star Wars show "The Mandalorian"