Mera
A feminine name of Hindi origin meaning "mine" or "my own".
Name Census estimates that about 555 living Americans carry the first name Mera. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mera today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mera births was 2019 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mera. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
555
~ 1 in 617,575 Americans
Peak year
2019
65 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,610
Tracked since 1927
Popularity
Mera: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mera from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 243 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mera remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mera by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mera during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Meras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Michigan recorded the most babies named Mera, while Ohio, Michigan, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mera
The name Mera has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which is one of the oldest languages in the world, dating back to the 2nd millennium BCE. It is believed to have derived from the Sanskrit word "meru," which means "ocean" or "sea." The name was prevalent in ancient India, particularly among the Hindu communities.
In Hindu mythology, Mera is associated with the goddess Mera Devi, who is considered the personification of the ocean. According to the Puranas, ancient Hindu scriptures, Mera Devi was born from the churning of the cosmic ocean by the devas (gods) and asuras (demons). She is revered as the mother of all beings and is often depicted holding a noose and a elephant goad, symbolizing her power to control the ocean's waves.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mera can be found in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. The epic mentions a character named Mera, who was the daughter of King Virata and the wife of the Pandava prince, Bhima.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Mera. One of the most famous was Mera Bai, a 16th-century Hindu mystic and devotional poet from Rajasthan, India. Her compositions, known as "bhajans," are still widely sung and revered in the Bhakti tradition.
Another prominent figure was Mera Kumari, an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived from 1940 to 2022. She was a renowned exponent of the Kathak dance form and was recognized with numerous awards, including the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honors.
In the realm of literature, Mera Syal is a British actress, comedian, and writer of Indian descent, born in 1962. She is best known for her semi-autobiographical novel "Anita and Me," which explores the experiences of a British-Indian girl growing up in the English Midlands.
Mera Rubell is an American art collector and philanthropist, born in 1942. Along with her husband, Don Rubell, she has amassed one of the world's most significant collections of contemporary art, which is housed in the Rubell Museum in Miami.
Lastly, Mera Muñoz Galván was a Chilean writer and educator who lived from 1909 to 2001. She was a pioneering figure in children's literature in Latin America and authored numerous books, including the popular "Cuentos de la Selva" (Tales of the Jungle) series.
People
Mera + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mera as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mera: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mera?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 555 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mera going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 617,575 US residents.
Is Mera a common name?
We classify Mera as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 574 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mera most popular?
The single biggest year for Mera was 2019, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mera is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Mera a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mera in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.