Tara

Spellings & scripts●

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 10 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◐

Tara is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Hindi given name1.2M records spelled Tara74 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Bangladesh, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hindi, Bangla, Urdu

  Also written তারা, Taru, তাঁরা, তোর, Tor

• a separate given name252K records spelled Tara4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Tārā, Ṭāra, Ṭārā

• Khmer given name44K records spelled Tara2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Spain, United Kingdom

  Also written Tārā

• Indonesian given name32K records spelled Tara5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Indonesia, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written 'Tara, T-Ara, Tārā

• Croatian given name22K records spelled Tara37 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, United States, Russia, Czechia

  Languages: Croatian, Russian, Czech

  Also written Тара, Tarah, Tarra, Terah, Tārā

• Hindi given name18K records spelled Tara65 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Sweden, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hindi, Telugu, Sinhala

  Also written Tari, Thara, Taru, Tharu, Tri

• Vietnamese given name16K records spelled Tara2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Vietnam, United Kingdom

  Also written T-Ara

76 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●

Tara 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.

• Sanskrit: ‘star’ or ‘asterism’, a byname of Durga especially in her meditative and magical guise; also the name of the wife of Brhaspati, preceptor of the gods, and mother of Buddha (the Indian equivalent of the god Mercury); in Mahayana Buddhism, the name of the wife of Buddha, and of a Buddhist goddess; in Jain texts, the name of a female deity.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• Sanskrit: 1 probably meaning ‘carrying’, ‘saviour’, an epithet of Rudra, and of Vishnu. 2 ‘shining’.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, An Irish place name, associated with the Hill of Tara, seat of ancient Irish kings.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Natesa (N); Rama (N); Siva (N); Visnu (N)

  as a name·Sunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names

• In English, lang., Central Sulawesi (Celebes)

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

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●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 111 years between 1899–2017. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Tara Fitzgeraldb. 1967GBEnglish actress (born 1967)
• Carmen Electrab. 1972USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, model, and singer
• Tara Subkoffb. 1972USAmerican actress (born 1972)
• Finty Williamsb. 1972GBnot in their usual nameEnglish actress (born 1972)
• Tara Strongb. 1973CACanadian-American actress
• Tara Reidb. 1975USAmerican actress (born 1975)
• Tara Sandsb. 1975USAmerican voice actress
• Tara Plattb. 1978USAmerican actress
• Tara Lipinskib. 1982USAmerican figure skater (born 1982)
• Tara Westoverb. 1986USAmerican historian and author

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 · 1,311 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Tara?

We estimate roughly 168 thousand people bear Tara (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Tara have the most bearers?

We estimate about 158 thousand people bear Tara in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled tara.

How common is Tara compared with other names?

In the United States, Tara is the 303rd most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Tara a male or female name?

Tara is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Tara mean?

Recorded meaning: Irish Gaelic: ancient home; Sanskrit: king's star; Buddhist goddess.