Given name & surname
Iara
“mistress of water”
Iara is a feminine given name from Nheengatu, meaning “mistress of water.” It is used in Portuguese.
Meaning & origin
How it developed
From Nheengatu iiyara (“mistress of water”), built from Nheengatu ií (“water”) + yara (“lord/lady”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
In mythological stories, Iara is associated with a water queen.
Iara through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 219
- 0 boys · 219 girls
- Most popular year
- 2009
- 16 babies
- 2025
- 7
- #12,397 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +100%
- Rising fast
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 7 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 12,397 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 491 as a first name in 2020; a sample rank of No. 83,506 among surnames in 1990.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Iara’s family of names
Iara has a related form in Iarah. Iara has a related form in Iarra. Iara has a related form in Iarrah.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Iara
- Heleieth SaffiotiBrazilian sociologist, teacher and feminist activist1934–2010
- Iara LeeKorean Brazilian film producer, director and activist (born 1966)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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