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 Klara is most popular
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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Subcarpathian1,110 girls born+13%
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Opole410 girls born+9%
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Świętokrzyskie488 girls born+8%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian954 girls born+7%
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Masovian3,085 girls born+7%
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Lublin887 girls born+6%
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West Pomeranian698 girls born+2%
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Pomeranian1,206 girls born+1%
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Lower Silesian1,260 girls born−2%
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Greater Poland1,710 girls born−2%
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Silesian1,794 girls born−3%
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Lubusz390 girls born−4%
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Podlaskie495 girls born−8%
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Warmian-Masurian540 girls born−8%
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Lesser Poland1,673 girls born−9%
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Łódź893 girls born−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