Klara
Given to barely a hundred newborn girls at the start of the millennium, Klara now goes to more than 2,000 a year and ranks among Poland's familiar choices. The name comes from the Latin clarus, "bright, clear."
Klara Pronunciation
Klara is pronounced KLAH-rah (/ˈklara/).
What Klara means
Where Klara comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Klara comes from the Latin clarus, an adjective that meant bright and clear. The variant Clara keeps the same root and the same brightness, and both spread across Europe from that one Latin word. In Poland the k gives it a firmer edge, though the meaning holds. Bright. Clear.
The best-known bearer is Saint Clare of Assisi, born Chiara in the thirteenth century, who followed Francis and founded her own order. Later the pianist Clara Schumann carried the variant into concert halls across the nineteenth century. The name traveled well because its meaning traveled with it.
On a Polish class register a Klara sits among the K names, and her imieniny fall on the eleventh of August, the feast of Saint Clare. The origin never hid: from clarus to Klara, the word for bright.
When Klara celebrates name day
Klara appears 5 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 17 April.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Klara
1 in 740 women in Poland is named Klara. 30,451 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #240 among female names.
Klara's popularity over time
2,352 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #31 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where parents choose Klara
Klara is given fairly evenly across Poland, with no strong regional preference. It leans slightly toward Subcarpathian (13% above the national average) and is least common in Łódź (13% below).
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Subcarpathian
+13%1 in 109 babies
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Opole
+9%1 in 112 babies
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Holy Cross
+8%1 in 114 babies
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Łódź
−13%1 in 142 babies
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Lesser Poland
−9%1 in 136 babies
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Podlaskie
−8%1 in 133 babies
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Subcarpathian+13% 1,110 born1 in 109 babies+13%
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Opole+9% 410 born1 in 112 babies+9%
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Holy Cross+8% 488 born1 in 114 babies+8%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+7% 954 born1 in 115 babies+7%
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Masovian+7% 3,085 born1 in 115 babies+7%
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Lublin+6% 887 born1 in 116 babies+6%
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West Pomeranian+2% 698 born1 in 121 babies+2%
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Pomeranian+1% 1,206 born1 in 122 babies+1%
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Lower Silesian−2% 1,260 born1 in 125 babies−2%
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Greater Poland−2% 1,710 born1 in 126 babies−2%
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Silesian−3% 1,794 born1 in 127 babies−3%
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Lubusz−4% 390 born1 in 127 babies−4%
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Podlaskie−8% 495 born1 in 133 babies−8%
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Warmian-Masurian−8% 540 born1 in 133 babies−8%
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Lesser Poland−9% 1,673 born1 in 136 babies−9%
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Łódź−13% 893 born1 in 142 babies−13%
Klara as a middle name
Klara is a first name for 30,451 women in Poland and a middle name for another 13,639, a 69/31 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 96th, between Zdzisława (14,646) and Leokadia (13,473).
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#94 Anastazja16,036
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#95 Zdzisława14,646
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#96 Klara13,639
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#97 Leokadia13,473
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#98 Ilona12,931