BabyNameScore

Mara

MAR·uh · 2 syllables

Mara is distinctive.

92/100

Strong Practical Fit

Balanced across pronunciation, everyday use, lifetime fit and international use.

Name Profile

  1. Pronunciation & Spelling

    Clear, with one common misreading

    A documented English pronunciation is on file: MAR-uh. Commonly mispronounced as MAR-uh vs MAH-rah.

    91/100

  2. Everyday Use

    Low risk

    95/100

  3. Growing Up

    Strong lifetime fit

    Short enough to work in every register without a nickname.

    86/100

  4. International Use

    Broad international fit

    Works cleanly across the assessed languages and writing systems.

    85/100

NAME DETAILS

CLOSE SPELLINGS
Marah
OTHER-LANGUAGE FORM
Māra
ORIGIN & HISTORY

About the name

Mara is a genuine match-key collision between two unrelated name traditions (Biblical Hebrew "bitter" vs. a Slavic short form of Maria); US birth statistics cannot distinguish which lane any individual named Mara draws from, so this profile presents both lanes rather than asserting a single canonical meaning.

  1. מָרָא (Ancient Hebrew script, for the Biblical Hebrew "bitter" lane). In the Biblical Book of Ruth (1:20), Naomi tells the women of Bethlehem to call her Mara instead of Naomi, saying "the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me," following the deaths of her husband and sons — the origin of the Hebrew "bitter" reading used as a given name in its own right.
  2. Mythological and religious contextBiblical: the name Naomi adopts for herself in the Book of Ruth (1:20) after the deaths of her husband and sons, reflecting her grief ("the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me").
POPULARITY

Mara over time

United States
#589RANK

Rank #589 gives national context, not a classroom forecast.

Uncommon in current U.S. usage. Ranked #589 in the U.S., 2025.

SourceU.S. Social Security Administration · 2025 release

Pronunciation & Forms

SAY IT

MAR·uh

STRESS ON THE FIRST SYLLABLE

CLOSE SPELLINGS
  • Marah
OTHER-LANGUAGE FORMS
  • Māra
PRACTICAL LIFE

How This Name Lives

AT SCHOOL & DAY TO DAY

Short, phonetically simple, and easy for a child to say and spell in most of its pronunciation variants.

INTO ADULTHOOD

Reads as classic, wholesome, strong, and refined per aggregated user-perception data, functioning comfortably as a professional adult name across the multiple cultural contexts in which it appears.

Cultural Footprint

Functions differently depending on the cultural lane in use: in Biblical Hebrew/Italian/Spanish/Portuguese contexts it carries the weight of the biblical "bitter" name Naomi chose for herself; in Hungarian/Croatian/Serbian/Macedonian contexts it functions as an affectionate short form within the Maria/Mária/Marija name family, unrelated to the Hebrew "bitter" meaning.

Names around it

Maria
EDITORIAL SYNTHESIS

The Decision

Mara is spelled without unusual letter patterns, and it holds up in everyday use. Surname-dependent compatibility remains unassessed until a surname is added.

STRENGTH

A documented English pronunciation is on file. Short enough to work in every register without a nickname.

BEST FIT

Everyday Use is the strongest-scoring part of this name — no obvious nickname traps, rhymes, or initial issues detected.

FULL-NAME CHECK

See how it works with a surname.

Mara