Vara
A feminine Sanskrit name meaning "boon", "blessing", or "wish".
Name Census estimates that about 201 living Americans carry the first name Vara. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vara today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vara births was 1922 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vara. 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.
People living today
201
~ 1 in 1,705,245 Americans
Peak year
1922
24 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,328
Tracked since 1887
Census
Vara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 382 people with the first name Vara, which placed it at #24,991 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
#24,991
National first-name rank
People counted
382
382 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vara is White at 49.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (29.8%) and Black (11.3%). 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 Vara 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 Vara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.7% · 190
- Asian and Pacific Islander29.8% · 114
- Black or African American11.3% · 43
- Two or more races5.0% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 16
Popularity
Vara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vara from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 163 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vara 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 Vara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Varas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia recorded the most babies named Vara, while Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vara
The name Vara has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which is an ancient Indo-Aryan language that originated in the Indian subcontinent. It is believed to have been derived from the Sanskrit word "vara," which means "boon" or "blessing." This suggests that the name Vara was initially given to children with the intention of bestowing blessings upon them.
In Hinduism, the name Vara is associated with the Hindu goddess Vara Lakshmi, who is considered the embodiment of wealth, prosperity, and fertility. She is often depicted as a beautiful woman seated on a lotus flower, holding lotus buds in her hands. This association with the goddess Vara Lakshmi may have contributed to the popularity of the name Vara among Hindu families.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vara can be found in the ancient Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata. In this epic, Vara is mentioned as the name of a warrior who fought alongside the Pandava princes during the Kurukshetra war.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Vara. One of the most famous was Vara Venkata Raman, an Indian physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his groundbreaking work on the scattering of light and the discovery of the Raman effect. He was born in 1888 and died in 1970.
Another prominent figure with the name Vara was Vara Prasad Kavyakantha, a renowned Indian poet and literary scholar who lived in the 19th century. He was born in 1839 and is celebrated for his contributions to Telugu literature, particularly his poetic works and translations.
In the field of music, Vara Lakshmi Saraswathi was a renowned Carnatic vocalist and composer who lived in the 20th century. She was born in 1923 and passed away in 2008. Her compositions and performances significantly influenced the Carnatic music tradition.
Vara Mahalakshmi was an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer who played a crucial role in the Indian independence movement. She was born in 1909 and actively participated in the non-violent resistance against British rule, often leading protests and rallies.
Vara Prasad Reddy was an Indian entrepreneur and industrialist who founded the Sagar Group of Companies, a conglomerate with interests in various sectors such as cement, education, and healthcare. He was born in 1940 and is widely recognized for his contributions to the industrial and economic growth of India.
People
Vara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vara as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 201 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vara 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 1,705,245 US residents.
Is Vara a common name?
We classify Vara as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 753 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vara most popular?
The single biggest year for Vara was 1922, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vara is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 382 people with the name Vara, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,991 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 Vara 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 Vara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vara leans strongly female. 342 people counted with this name were female (87.7%), compared with 48 male bearers (12.3%). 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 Vara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vara is White at 49.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (29.8%) and Black (11.3%). 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 Vara most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.7% (190 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 Vara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vara a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vara 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 Vara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vara 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 Vara 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 people have Vara as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.