Tamara - Origin and Meaning of the name

The girl name Tamara [ 3 syll. ta-ma-ra, tam-ara ] is pronounced TahMAARah ^KEY. Tamara has its origins in the Hebrew language, and it is used largely in English, German, Hungarian, and Russian. Biblical name derived from the element tamar with the meaning 'date palm, palm tree'. Tamar (Hebrew) and Thamar (Hebrew) are old forms of the name. The name was borne in the Bible by four characters, including Absalom's sister who was raped by her half-brother Amnon; she was also King David's daughter. It was also borne by the beautiful daughter of Absalom, which has promoted the popularity of the name among Christians.

Variants of Tamara include Tamar (Hebrew and Turkish), Tamera (English), Tamira (English), Tamra (English), and Tamy (English). The pet forms Tami (English), Tamia (English), Tammi (English), Tammie (English), Tammy (English), and Toma (Russian) are other variants of the name.

Tamara is an all-time favorite. Currently it is still somewhat popular as a baby name for girls, though it was in more widespread use previously. The name's popularity grew from the 1930s up to the 1970s; before that, it was of only infrequent use. At the modest height of its usage in 1974, 0.289% of baby girls were named Tamara. Its ranking then was #63. The baby name has since experienced a substantial drop in popularity. In 2007, it ranked at #702 with a usage of 0.020%. Within the group of girl names directly related to Tamara, Tamia (English) was the most popular. It was 43% more popular than Tamara in 2007.

Baby names that sound like Tamara include Tamera (English), Tamira (English), Tamar (Hebrew and Turkish), and Tamra (English).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Tamara: T as in "tea (T.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"

Popularity Trend
for Tamara
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Tamara
in 2007