Vera

Where Vera comes from

Borrowed in the nineteenth century from the Russian virtue name Ве́ра (Véra, “faith”). By folk etymology it has also been explained as Latin vera (“true”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Vera
  • Russian
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #223 among girls — 48 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1919
    Peak, #65
    3,848 babies named Vera — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1928
    Vera Rubin born
    American astronomer and physicist
  4. 1973
    Vera Farmiga born
    American actress
  5. 2025
    The comeback
    Back to #205 after sinking to #2,307 in 1999.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Russian.
Namesakes
  • Vera Farmiga · American actress, born 1973
  • Vera Rubin · American astronomer and physicist, 1928–2016
  • Vera Mukhina · Soviet sculptor, 1889–1953
  • Vera Lynn · British singer, 1917–2020
  • Vera Zvonareva · Russian tennis player, born 1984

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.