Dara
A Persian name meaning "possessor of wealth or noble."
Name Census estimates that about 12,852 living Americans carry the first name Dara. It is a predominantly female name (94.4% of registrations). The average person named Dara today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dara births was 1981 (466 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dara. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Dara with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 26,669 Americans
Peak year
1981
466 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,026
Tracked since 1893
Census
Dara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,155 people with the first name Dara, which placed it at #2,065 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,065
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,155 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dara is White at 65.7%. The next largest groups are Black (10.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Dara described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Dara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.7% · 8,639
- Black or African American10.9% · 1,436
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.4% · 1,231
- Hispanic or Latino9.0% · 1,184
- Two or more races4.4% · 574
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 91
Gender
Gender distribution for Dara
Dara leans heavily female at 94.4% of total registrations, but 807 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dara as a male name
- Ranked #3,525 in 2024
- 32 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (39 births)
Dara as a female name
- Ranked #1,026 in 2024
- 244 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1981 (453 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dara leans strongly female. 11,994 people counted with this name were female (91.2%), compared with 1,154 male bearers (8.8%).
Popularity
Dara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dara from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 3,090 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Dara remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dara by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Dara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Daras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Dara, while West Virginia, Idaho, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 254 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dara
The name Dara is believed to have originated from the Persian language, and it can be traced back to ancient Persia (modern-day Iran) and the surrounding regions. The name is derived from the Persian word "dara," which means "wealthy" or "prosperous." It was a popular name among the ruling classes and nobility of ancient Persia.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Dara can be found in the ancient Persian epic, the Shahnameh, written by the poet Ferdowsi in the late 10th century. In this epic, Dara is mentioned as a character, although it is not clear whether this was a real person or a fictional figure.
The name Dara gained prominence during the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BCE), which ruled over a vast territory stretching from the Indus Valley in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. One of the most famous historical figures with the name Dara was Darius the Great (550-486 BCE), who ruled the Achaemenid Empire from 522 to 486 BCE and is credited with numerous military conquests and administrative reforms.
Another notable figure with the name Dara was Dara Shikoh (1615-1659), the eldest son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Dara Shikoh was a patron of the arts and a scholar who wrote several works on Sufism and mysticism. He was also a proponent of religious tolerance and sought to bridge the gap between Islam and Hinduism.
In the 19th century, Dara Singh Arora (1837-1913) was a renowned Sikh warrior and leader who played a pivotal role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against British colonial rule. He was known for his bravery and military tactics.
More recently, Dara Singh (1928-2012) was an Indian actor, wrestler, and former champion of the Commonwealth Games. He was a prominent figure in the Indian film industry and is considered one of the greatest wrestlers in India's history.
While the name Dara has its roots in ancient Persia, it has also been adopted in various cultures and languages around the world, including Arabic, Turkish, and Indian languages like Hindi and Punjabi.
People
Dara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dara as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,852 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dara going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 26,669 US residents.
Is Dara a common name?
We classify Dara as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,291 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dara most popular?
The single biggest year for Dara was 1981, when 466 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dara is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,155 people with the name Dara, or 4.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,065 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Dara in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Dara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dara leans strongly female. 11,994 people counted with this name were female (91.2%), compared with 1,154 male bearers (8.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Dara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dara is White at 65.7%. The next largest groups are Black (10.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Dara most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.7% (8,639 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Dara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dara a female name?
Yes, 94.4% of people registered as Dara in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Dara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dara in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Dara can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Dara?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.