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Lara

Barely present in Poland a generation ago, Lara has surfaced as an emerging name: given to close to 200 newborn girls last year, always to girls. Latin at root, it carries the sense of "protection".

Lara Pronunciation

Lara is pronounced LAH-rah (/ˈlara/).

Alive in 2025
2,552
Newborns 2025
193
National rank
#628

What Lara means

Where Lara comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

The name Lara comes from Latin, and its oldest thread runs back to the Lares, the household gods that Roman families kept near the hearth. Those spirits guarded the home and everyone inside it. From that root the name gathered its short meaning, protection, and in Polish the fuller sense of opiekunka domowego ogniska, the keeper of the family hearth.

Lara is brief. Two syllables settle quickly onto a register in a school class. The name also travels in longer forms: Larissa and Larysa stretch it out, and both remain in Polish use today.

The link to the Lares was likely strengthened over time by scholars who read the name back into Roman myth. What reaches a child now is simpler. A girl named Lara carries a Latin word for protection and a Polish phrase for the guardian of the hearth.

How many people are named Lara

1 in 8834 women in Poland is named Lara. 2,552 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #628 among female names.

People with the name Lara 2019 → 2025
2,552 +1,636 since 2019
2020 1,040 +124
2021 1,256 +216
2022 1,590 +334
2023 1,936 +346
2024 2,247 +311
2025 2,552 +305

Lara's popularity over time

193 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #190 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.

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193 newborns with the name Lara in 2025
national rank #190 that year

Where Lara is most popular

Lara is most popular in Opole, 91% above the national average (61 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lubusz (+66%) and West Pomeranian (+42%). It is least common in Podlaskie and Lublin, 52% and 41% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Lara as a middle name

Lara is a first name for 2,552 women in Poland and a middle name for another 377, an 87/13 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 350th, between Irma (380) and Leonia (373).

As a first name
2,552
As a middle name
377
first name 87% middle name 13%
Middle-name ranking women

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