Myra peaked in 1958, has 63,483 total SSA bearers, and sits at rank 646 — a name with mid-century bones that's moving slowly back into conversation. It's quieter than most revival names, which is exactly what makes it interesting to the specific parents who are choosing it.
A Literary Invention
Myra was likely coined by the Latin-influenced English poet Fulke Greville in the late 16th century as a poetic name — the etymology is uncertain, but the name may connect to Greek myrrh (the aromatic resin) or Latin mirus (wonderful). The uncertainty is part of the name's character: Myra doesn't have a clean, verifiable origin story the way biblical or Greek mythological names do. It was invented for verse, then adopted by real people, then became a genuine given name across generations. That literary construction is more common than people realize — Miranda was Shakespeare's invention; Myra was Greville's.
The Mid-Century Peak
Myra's 1958 peak places it in the same generation as Myra-the-television-era name: friendly, accessible, with the Y that felt modern in the postwar years. That era's names are now entering their vintage window — old enough to have skipped a generation or two, young enough to still feel like a real name rather than an artifact. Myra sits alongside Vera, Nora, and Flora in that reassessment.
Four Letters, No Complications
Myra is four letters, two syllables, easy to spell, impossible to mispronounce in American English. The Y in the middle is a visual anchor that makes the name feel slightly more distinctive on paper than MY-rah alone would suggest. At four letters, it has the economy that contemporary naming aesthetics reward. Nickname options are limited, Myra is effectively already nickname-sized , hich is itself a feature for parents who prefer names that don't collapse into shorter forms.