Pronunciation kee-ra Word/name Ancient Greece, Japan | Gender mostly female Meaning Ruler | |
Related names | ||
Kira is a mostly female given name of ancient origin and multiple etymological derivations.
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The girl's name Kira is pronounced /ˈkɪərə/ KEER-ə. It might be a female form of the name Kiran, pronounced /ˈkɪərən/ KEER-ən. Kiran is of Hindi and Sanskrit origin, meaning "beam of light". Besides Sanskrit, there might be other etymologies from Egyptian, where the word Ki-Ra means "like Ra", or Persian. Due to the Greek interpretation of the Persian king's name Kourosh (کوروش, Kūrosh) as Κύρος (Kýros) – which was obviously modeled after the Greek word κύριος (kýrios "lord"), the female form being κυρία (kyría) – Kyra (or Kira) can also be understood as a variant of this originally Persian name of uncertain signification. Therefore, it is also in use as a female form of the Greek diminutive form Cyril. Cyrus was the name of several kings of Persia, including Cyrus the Great, who was famous for his vast expansion of the Persian Empire, conquering Babylon; he is known to many today from the Bible, for freeing the captive Jews (among others) and allowing them to return to their homeland.
In Russian Kira (Ки́ра) is the feminine form of the male name Kir, meaning "mistress, ruler", but can translate to "leader of the people", "one the people look to" or "beloved". Kira could also have arrived into Russian from the Persian-Greek name Kyra. Kira can also be the diminutive of the old and rare male given name Avvakir.
Kira is one of several Anglicized forms of the Irish name Ciara, which in Irish means "dark haired" .
There is also a Japanese name, romanized as Kira, which is common in Japan, as both given name and family name. Kira kira also means "glittery, shiny" in Japanese.
Variant forms include Kaira, Keera, Keira, Kiera, Kyra, Kyrah, Kyreena, Kyrha, Kyria, Kyrie, Kyrene, Kyrra and Kirra.