Cara
Meaning of Cara
Cara slips easily off the tongue—KAIR-uh—and carries a passport stamped in both Italian and Gaelic: in Italian, cara means “beloved,” while in Irish it translates to “friend.” The dual heritage lends the name a tidy blend of warmth and sociability without tipping into sentimentality. In the United States, Cara first tiptoed onto the charts in the late 19th century, crested near the mid-1970s, and has since maintained a comfortable mid-list position, most recently hovering around the 700s—a statistical sweet spot for parents who favor familiarity over ubiquity. Literary types may think of the noble Cara in operatic works, fashion followers of model Cara Delevingne, and Anglophiles of the Regency-era endearment “my dear Cara,” all of which give the name a quietly cosmopolitan sheen. Short, vowel-rich, and free of tricky consonant clusters, Cara requires no diacritical acrobatics on school forms, yet offers enough cultural depth to age gracefully from sandbox to boardroom.
Pronunciation
English
- Pronunced as KAIR-uh (/kɑˈrə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Cara
| Cara Delevingne is an English model, actress and musician who was twice named Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards. |
| Cara Black is a Zimbabwean former tennis star who reached world number one in doubles and won ten major titles. |
| Cara Mund is an American attorney from Bismarck who made history as the first North Dakotan to be crowned Miss America. |
| Cara Cowan Watts is a Cherokee Nation politician who served on the Tribal Council from 2003 to 2015 and ran for Principal Chief in 2023. |
| Cara De Silva was an American food historian and writer best known for editing In Memory's Kitchen, a collection of recipes from the women of the Terezin concentration camp. |
| Cara McCollum was an American journalist, SNJ Today news anchor, and Miss New Jersey 2013 who competed for Miss America 2014. |
| Cara Ellison is a Scottish writer and critic known for her work in video games. |
| Cara Theobold is an English actress best known for playing Ivy Stuart in Downton Abbey and for her roles in Crazyhead and Absentia. |
| Cara Buono is an Emmy-nominated American actress best known for playing Karen Wheeler on Netflix's Stranger Things and for her work on Mad Men. |
| Cara Readle is a Welsh actress from Swansea, best known for playing Layla in The Story of Tracy Beaker. |
| Cara DeLizia is a former American actress best known for playing Fiona Phillips on the Disney Channel series So Weird. |
| Cara Taylor is a model from the United States who works in fashion. |
| Cara Ruth Silverman was an American film editor. |
| English actress Cara Seymour is known for her roles in American Psycho and Gangs of New York and the Cinemax series The Knick. |
| Cara DeVito is an American video producer, journalist and artist who earned a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard in 1998. |
