Ira is a two-syllable spark that first glowed in ancient Hebrew, where it means “watchful” and shows up in the Bible as one of King David’s loyal warriors; hop over to Sanskrit and the same letters spell a gentle earth-goddess, proof that the name wears both armor and wildflowers with equal ease. Thanks to jazz-age lyricist Ira Gershwin and storytelling icon Ira Glass, it carries a creative streak, while its neat, vowel-heavy shape fits the modern love for short, gender-flexible names. Parents also enjoy its built-in financial pun—“an Ira that actually grows on its own!”—even if the retirement account is spelled in all caps. Through more than a century on U.S. charts, Ira has slipped, rallied, and now hovers in that sweet spot between familiar and unexpected, making it a watchful little classic ready to spring to life in any nursery.
Ira Glass is an award-winning American public radio host and producer, best known for creating and hosting This American Life. |
Ira Frederick Aldridge was an American-born British actor celebrated for his Shakespearean roles and recognized as a pioneering Black tragedian. |
Ira Hyman is an American psychologist and professor at Western Washington University, renowned for his research on human memory, including false memories and inattentional blindness. |
Ira Remsen was an American chemist who introduced organic chemistry to the U.S., served as the first chemistry professor and second president of Johns Hopkins University, and oversaw the discovery of saccharin in his laboratory. |
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his brother George to create timeless Broadway songs and the opera Porgy and Bess. |
Ira Samuel Einhorn, known as "The Unicorn Killer," was an environmental activist who murdered his ex-girlfriend Holly Maddux. |
Ira Marvin Levin was an American author renowned for novels like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Stepford Wives," which were adapted into popular films, and he earned several prestigious awards. |
Ira Sprague Bowen, an American physicist and astronomer, discovered in 1927 that nebulium was actually doubly ionized oxygen. |
Ira Silverstein - Ira I. Silverstein served as a Democratic Illinois Senator from 1999 to 2019, representing the 8th district that includes parts of Chicago and surrounding suburbs. |
Ira M. Lapidus is an Emeritus Professor at UC Berkeley renowned for his authoritative works on Islamic societies and movements. |
Ira David Wood III is an American actor, director, and playwright who heads Theatre in the Park in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is the father of actress Evan Rachel Wood. |
Ira Berkowitz is an American crime fiction writer known for his Jackson Steeg Mystery Series set in Hell's Kitchen. |
Ira von Fürstenberg was an Italian noble socialite, actress, and jewelry designer who served as Valentino's PR manager, born into the Fürstenberg family and married into the Hohenlohe-Langenburg dynasty. |
Ira Sullivan was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer from Washington, D.C., active since the 1950s and frequently collaborating with Red Rodney and Lin Halliday. |
Ira Glasser is an American civil liberties activist who led the ACLU from 1978 to 2001 and is the subject of the 2020 documentary Mighty Ira. |