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 [ 2 syll. la-ra, lar-a ] The girl name Lara is pronounced as LAARah KEY. Lara is largely used in English, Russian, Slavic, and German. It is derived from Latin and Old Greek origins. In Roman mythology, Lara or Larunda was a beautiful nymph exiled to the Underworld by Jupiter for revealing his amorous affairs. The name was introduced to English speakers by Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (1957) and the subsequent highly successful film (1965), in which Lara Antipova is the name of the tragic heroine. It was also made known by Lara's Theme, the name of the recurring musical cue for the film written by Maurice Jarre. In recent times, the name has been made known by Lara Croft, the action heroine of the Tomb Raider video game series (1996-) and subsequent movies (2001,2003).
In addition, Lara is an English, German, and Russian form of the name Laura (English, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Spanish). Lara is also a form of the name Clare (English). Lara is also an English, Russian, and Slavic short form of the name Larissa (German and Russian). Lara is also a short form of the name Klara (Czech, German, Latvian, Polish, Russian, Scandinavian, Slavic, and Ukrainian). The pet form Larina (English), and the spelling variants Larah (English) and Larra (English) are forms of the name. Lara is a classic favorite. Currently it is still somewhat popular as a baby girl name, but to a lesser degree than it was previously. The name increased in popularity during the 1960s; before that, it was of infrequent use only. At the modest height of its usage in 1969, 0.077% of baby girls were named Lara. It had a ranking of #224 then. The baby name has seen a fall in popularity since then. In 2008, its usage was 0.014% and its ranking #931. Within the family of girl names directly related to Lara, Laura (English, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Spanish) was the most commonly used. In 2008, it was more widely used than Lara by 5 times. Baby names that sound like Lara include Larae (English), Larah (English), Lari (English), Larra (English), Larue (English), Laura (English, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Spanish), Laurah (English), Lauranne (French), Lauri (English), Laurie (English), Leora (English and Hebrew), Lera (English and Russian), Lira (English), Llora (Catalan), Lora (Spanish, Italian, Russian, English, and Slavic), Lorah (English), Loree (English), Lorey (English), Lori (English), and Lorie (English). Details of famous persons named Lara: KEY: Pronunciation for Lara: L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"   |
