Mora

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Moura in BR Brazil, PT Portugal, NL Netherlands and 2 more, Morre in PH Philippines, AT Austria, BE Belgium, Meri in IN India and โมรา in TH Thailand.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 26 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Mora is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English surname509K records spelled Mora38 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Philippines

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Moera, Mörä, Mora', Morà, Môrã

• a separate surname52K records spelled Mora8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, India, Spain

  Also written Mor-A, Morå, Móra, Môra, Mörä

• Hindi surname6.5K records spelled Mora72 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Spain, Argentina, United States

  Languages: Hindi, Spanish, Catalan

  Also written Mura, Mur, Moore, Mure, 무라

• Indonesian surname5.7K records spelled Mora3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Philippines, Peru

  Also written Môra, Móra

• Danish surname2.4K records spelled Mora19 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Denmark, Norway, Spain

  Languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian

  Also written Mörä, Moraa, Móra, Mõrä, Mörã

• Turkish surname1.7K records spelled Mora40 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, France, United States, Spain

  Languages: Turkish, French, Spanish

  Also written Meriç, Meric, Méric, Mur, Maritsa

60 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Mora is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• from Morandus, an old personal name of uncertain derivation and meaning.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• topographic name from Old Italian mora ‘pile of stones’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• possibly a nickname from mora ‘sickness’, ‘plague’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• possibly a nickname from mora ‘vampire’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In Spanish, someone who lived by a mulberry or blackberry bush, from Sp. mora mulberry, blackberry (LL mora, originally the pi. of class. L morum). There are numerous places named with this word, and the surname may also be a habi¬ tation name from any of these. It is also possible that it was used as a nickname, with reference to the dark colour of the

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

EC INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024) — 125 years between 1900–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Juan Vicente Pérezb. 1909VEnot in their usual nameVenezuelan supercentenarian, the world's oldest verified living man (1909–2024)
• Elizabeth Catlettb. 1915USnot in their usual nameBlack American-born Mexican artist (1915–2012)
• Terézia Morab. 1971HUGerman Hungarian writer, screenwriter and translator (born 1971)
• Mauricio Solísb. 1972CRnot in their usual nameCosta Rican footballer
• Melani Olivaresb. 1973ESnot in their usual nameSpanish actress
• Juan Luis Morab. 1973ESSpanish footballer
• José Juan Bareab. 1984USnot in their usual namePuerto Rican basketball player (born 1984)
• Celso Borgesb. 1988CRnot in their usual nameCosta Rican association football player
• Nicolás Castillob. 1993CLnot in their usual nameChilean association football player
• Rodrigo Morab. 2007PTPortuguese footballer (born 2007)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 679 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Mora?

We estimate roughly 364 thousand people bear Mora (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.

In which country does Mora have the most bearers?

Mora is most frequently recorded in Mexico, where it is most often spelled mora.

Where is Mora most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Mora is densest in Costa Rica — about 1 in 38 people — even though Mexico holds more of our records for it.

How common is Mora compared with other names?

In Mexico, Mora is the 89th most common surname of 198,716 surnames recorded there.

What does the name Mora mean?

Recorded meaning: habitational name from any of the places named Mora, in some cases from mora ‘mulberry’ (Late Latin mora, originally the plural of classical Latin morum).