Clara
Meaning
"clear, bright, famous," from clarus; St. Clare of Assisi gave it saintly standing, and the Nutcracker's heroine dances under it every December. A vintage classic revived across Europe and the Americas alike
Goes by Claretta, Clarette
The story
Clara is the Latin clarus made feminine: clear, bright, and in the old usage famous as well, a name that shines by definition. Saint Clare of Assisi, follower of Francis and founder of an order of nuns, spread it across medieval Europe, and later bearers kept the light on, from Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, to Clara Schumann at her piano, to the girl who receives the nutcracker in the beloved ballet. In America it was a staple of the late nineteenth century, then spent the middle of the twentieth in a long fade, heard more often among grandmothers than newborns. The vintage revival changed everything: Clara has been climbing since the 1990s and today stands as strong in the records as it has in more than a century. Some names simply wait.
Clara's name family
One shared root links 6 names across 2 languages.
Shared root: from Latin clarus "clear, bright, famous", sainted by Clare of Assisi
The constellation
More branches
On record since at least 1255: Clara of Assisi; the 1255 canonization bull serves her Latin name.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Clara peaked in the 2020s.
Popularity in Brazil
126,362 people · the #257 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,608 · median age 13
Among people named Clara living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 17,858 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
The Clara deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Clara truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Clara fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Clara · Nicknames for Clara · Middle names for Clara · Global crossover names · Names of music legends
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