# Cara (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/cara/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | Italian |
| Meaning | “dear”, “friend” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Kara |
| US babies named this | 53,367 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 62 / 53,305 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 6,460, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

20th-century English coinage from Italian cara (“dear”) or Irish cara (“friend”).

## What it means

Cara is grouped under friend and love.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 473 | 609 |
| 2012 | 404 | 698 |
| 2013 | 451 | 620 |
| 2014 | 421 | 676 |
| 2015 | 389 | 730 |
| 2016 | 352 | 808 |
| 2017 | 318 | 861 |
| 2018 | 310 | 874 |
| 2019 | 252 | 1,021 |
| 2020 | 289 | 908 |
| 2021 | 248 | 1,025 |
| 2022 | 208 | 1,163 |
| 2023 | 182 | 1,264 |
| 2024 | 178 | 1,297 |
| 2025 | 168 | 1,326 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 5 | 5,719 |
| 1977 | 5 | 5,964 |
| 1979 | 7 | 4,912 |
| 1981 | 5 | 6,404 |
| 1982 | 6 | 5,730 |
| 1985 | 7 | 5,218 |
| 1987 | 8 | 5,038 |
| 1988 | 5 | 7,439 |
| 1989 | 9 | 5,221 |
| 1992 | 5 | 8,599 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 228 | 218 |
| 2012 | 220 | 230 |
| 2013 | 208 | 239 |
| 2014 | 222 | 230 |
| 2015 | 200 | 248 |
| 2016 | 218 | 237 |
| 2017 | 195 | 256 |
| 2018 | 160 | 295 |
| 2019 | 156 | 305 |
| 2020 | 140 | 327 |
| 2021 | 123 | 373 |
| 2022 | 90 | 468 |
| 2023 | 90 | 444 |
| 2024 | 91 | 454 |
| 2025 | 85 | 468 |

## People named Cara

- Cara Delevingne, British model and actor (born 1992)
- Cara Buono, American actress, screenwriter, and director
- Cara Williams, American actress (1925–2021)
- Cara Cunningham, American Internet personality, songwriter, and recording artist
- Cara Seymour, British actress
- Cara Theobold, British actress
- Cara Lott, American pornographic actress
- Cara DeLizia, American actress
- Cara Mund, American beauty pageant winner, lawyer, Congressional candidate
- Cara Horgan, British actress
- Cara Pifko, Canadian actress
- Carly Fiorina, American businesswoman and politician

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.