Mirra
A feminine name derived from the Hebrew word for "bitter".
Name Census estimates that about 365 living Americans carry the first name Mirra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mirra today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mirra births was 2017 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mirra. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mirra with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
365
~ 1 in 939,053 Americans
Peak year
2017
24 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,069
Tracked since 1985
Census
Mirra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 397 people with the first name Mirra, which placed it at #24,319 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#24,319
National first-name rank
People counted
397
397 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mirra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mirra is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mirra described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mirra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.3% · 267
- Hispanic or Latino13.1% · 52
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.3% · 29
- Two or more races7.1% · 28
- Black or African American3.8% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 6
Popularity
Mirra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mirra from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 172 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mirra remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mirra 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 Mirra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mirra
The name Mirra has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which is an ancient Indo-Aryan language that dates back to the 2nd millennium BCE. In Sanskrit, the word "mirra" means "fragrant" or "aromatic," and it is derived from the Sanskrit word "mri," which means "to crush" or "to grind."
The earliest known reference to the name Mirra can be found in the ancient Hindu scriptures known as the Vedas, which date back to around 1500 BCE. In these sacred texts, the name Mirra is associated with various herbs and spices that were used in religious rituals and ceremonies.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Mirra was Mirra, the daughter of the mythological figure King Cinyras of Cyprus. According to Greek mythology, Mirra was cursed by the goddess Aphrodite and was transformed into the myrrh tree after becoming pregnant with her father's child.
Another notable figure with the name Mirra was Mirra Alfassa, also known as the Mother, who was a spiritual collaborator of the Indian philosopher and yogi Sri Aurobindo. She was born in Paris in 1878 and played a significant role in the development of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India.
In the Christian tradition, the name Mirra is associated with the Magi, or the Three Wise Men, who brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus. Myrrh was a highly valued aromatic resin that was used for embalming and as a perfume in ancient times.
Throughout history, there have been several other notable individuals with the name Mirra, including Mirra Ginsburg (1909-2010), a Russian-American writer and translator, and Mirra Lokhvitskaya (1869-1905), a Russian revolutionary and feminist activist.
It is worth noting that the name Mirra is not as common as some other names, but it has maintained a certain level of popularity throughout history due to its association with fragrant spices, ancient mythology, and religious traditions.
People
Mirra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mirra 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
Mirra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mirra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 365 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mirra 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 939,053 US residents.
Is Mirra a common name?
We classify Mirra as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 369 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mirra most popular?
The single biggest year for Mirra was 2017, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mirra is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mirra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 397 people with the name Mirra, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,319 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mirra in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mirra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mirra appears almost entirely female. Of the 406 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mirra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mirra is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mirra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mirra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.3% (267 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mirra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mirra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mirra 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.
Is Mirra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mirra in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mirra can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people have Mirra as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Mirra on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.