She’s just four letters long, but this little name has quite a lot of meaning.
Thanks to Maize for suggesting the culture-spanning Dara as our Baby Name of the Day.
Lara, Mara, and Shara have also appeared in the US Top 1000.
Yoruba, Swahili, and Indonesian origins are all claimed, too. In Iran, a pair of dolls meant to emphasize traditional values are called Dara and Sara.
My favorite use of Dara is as a place name. In Syria, not far from the Turkish border, there’s an Iron Age temple thought to date to 1300 BC. The photo of the ruins above is taken from Ain Dara. The site is also called Ayn Dara or Ain Darra. The temple is quite similar to the Biblical description of Solomon’s Temple.
There’s also a modern village called Ain Dara in Lebanon, and a historic fortress by the name in Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamian site – today, it is Turkey – was the location of the Battle of Dara in 530, a conflict between the Byzantines and the Sassanids.
Despite multiple masculine roots, the two Daras most likely to come to mind are female.
Dara Torres won Olympic gold medals in swimming between 1984 and 2008.
Overall, Dara occupies an interesting place. Her -ara ending leaves her feeling the tiniest bit dated, like Cara and Tara. But Sarah is evergreen, and Dara herself was never especially popular.
While she can’t be called fashion-forward, Dara remains distinctive; a seldom-heard choice that could appeal to parents seeking a name with history, but with a certain flexibility.
My sister’s name is Dara. Pronounced Dar-a not Dare-a. She has always had to correct people about the pronunciation as they generally want to say Dare-a. She has also been called Dora, Darla, Dana, Darnell! I had also heard that a possible meaning was “house of compassion or wisdom” but multicultural names like this are so hard to track! The compassion meaning was what influenced my mother to choose the name.
“Dara herself was never especially popular.” Don’t I know it! I was born in 1984 and I’ve never actually met another person with my name, although I’ve known others who’ve known people with my name. Mine is pronounced like Sarah and I’ve fought the battle throughout my life on telling people it’s pronounced that way. I don’t know why it’s automatically thought of DAR-uh when you don’t pronounce Sara, Kara or Tara that way most of the time.
I never heard of a man named Dara though so that’s news to me! Only ones I ever heard of were women. And I can’t tell you how many times people called me Dana. Or Daria (especially in high school when the TV show was popular).
When I go places like restaurants that ask for my name, I just give my middle name–Marie–because nine times out of 10 they either pronounce it wrong or call me Dora, Dana, or any variant thereof 😛 Still, I like it since there aren’t many out there with it. And it’s not so unique that it sounds weird like some of the names coming out today.
The only Dara I know in real life, is actually named Darlin, so that’s influencing my feeling that it’s a sugary-sweet name.
Dara is pretty. (I’m pronouncing it DAR-uh, but DAIR-uh is nice, too.) It’s neat to find names that work across so many cultures. I can only imagine this as a girls’ name in the U.S.
I like Dara and Daria a lot, but the pronunciation question swayed me from considering it too seriously. I think I’d prefer it as a middle name for that reason.
This name reads all girl to me, though I have known a few male Danas. I pronounce this Dar-a, though I think the Dare-a prn is nice too. I like Dara, but I prefer Daria, Danna, and even Zara.
This is all girl to me. I actually kind of like it-I really like Adair so this is basically an inversion of the cound-though I get the slightly dated vibe as well. I pronounce it Dare-a, I don’t like Dar-a at all.
I too would prefer this on a boy instead of a girl.
I just always see male when I see this name!
Dara O Briain – he’s a famous comedian/presenter in the UK. He’s Irish.
I think it might be more wearable for a boy in the UK – but that’s just a hunch.
My DIL has a friend called Dara (early 30s). Her given name is Daralyn (not sure how that’s spelled).
I know a male Dara too. He’s almost 40, and a fast friend of the family. His parents probably pulled his name from the Bible as well, he’s Jewish (His sister is Rachel). Lovely dude.
Why am I thinking Mtv? Wasn’t Dara a cartoon back in the 90’s? You probably mentioned her but my coffee deprived brain isn’t functioning very well. *shrug* I like Dara better on a guy 🙂 but don’t mind it on a girl either.
Interesting. It appears that the one Dara I know was influenced more by the name’s history than its more recent use, since he is certainly a male (in his 20s). At a guess, I would say that his name was pulled from the Bible as his background is Chinese, not Persian or Gaelic.
I meant to say, “the parents of the one Dara I know”.