Kira carries 40,018 cumulative American girls on SSA record, sits at rank 455, and reached its peak in 2005. The chart shows minimal pre-1980 use, a steady 1990s climb, a 2003-2007 high during the broader American short-name surge, and a measured decline through the 2010s as parental tastes shifted toward longer Romance-language alternatives.
The Persian and Russian source
Kira has multiple etymological sources reflecting the name's wide international reach. The Persian source connects it to the male name Cyrus through its feminine form, ultimately from Khoreh meaning "sun" or related to the throne name of the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great. The Russian source is Kira as a feminine form of Kyrios, a Greek-Christian element meaning "lord." The Japanese source kira means "sparkle" or "shining."
The Dark Crystal (1982) featured the Gelfling character Kira and gave the name a small but durable cult-fantasy anchor. The Death Note anime and manga (2003-2006) used Kira as a key character codename, contributing to a smaller anime-influenced naming surge through the late 2000s.
The international-short cluster
Kira sits with Mira, Lyra, Zara, and Nora in the short, internationally-coded girl cluster that has anchored multiple decades of American naming. Browse the broader Persian girl names family, or scan the four-letter girl-names list at 4-letter girl names for adjacent picks.
The counter-reading
The pronunciation fork is the practical question. Kira is said two ways in current American use: KEER-ah (the dominant English-language pronunciation, including the Persian-Russian register) and KYE-rah (a smaller variant). Most American Kiras correct occasionally. The two-syllable rhythm is short and travels well across English, Russian, Japanese, and Persian. The international reach gives the name unusually wide cross-cultural usability.