Keira peaked in 2006 and sits at rank 609 today — a soft slide from its mid-2000s high, but 33,362 total SSA bearers is a substantial base. The name rides almost entirely on Keira Knightley's rise to prominence, and that's not a criticism: it's a study in how a single famous bearer can redirect a name's trajectory for a generation.
An Irish Name in British Packaging
Keira is a variant of the Irish name Ciara, which means "dark" or "dark-haired" — from the Old Irish ciar. The spelling shift from Ciara to Keira happened naturally as the name crossed into English-speaking contexts where Ciara's pronunciation (KEER-ah) was less intuitive. Keira and Kira are the main anglicized variants, with Keira leaning slightly more British and Kira the more globally distributed form. At five letters, Keira is compact but not terse.
The Knightley Effect
Keira Knightley debuted in Bend It Like Beckham in 2002 and exploded with Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003. The name's 2006 peak tracks that window almost exactly. When an actor is at the height of their popularity — the covers, the premieres, the profile, parents absorb the name as a cultural ambient signal. Knightley's particular cultural profile, sharp-featured, literary-adjacent, British but internationally legible , ave the name a specific aesthetic that has persisted.
What "Peaked in 2006" Actually Means
Names that peaked twenty years ago occupy a strange middle ground: too recent to feel vintage, too established to feel fresh. Keira is in that zone. But the Keira vs. Kira split is interesting —, ra has stayed steadier, while Keira carries that very specific 2000s British-cool imprint. For parents who want something recognizable but not common today, that gap between peak and present is exactly the feature.