Zara (name)

Zara is a feminine given name and a surname.

It is a spelling variant of the Arabic female name Zahra.^[1] which means beautiful, radiant, and divine.^[2] It is possible that the name has Hebrew origins in the word saraja, translating to sovereign, ruler, or a woman of high rank.

There is also an interpretation that Zara is a form of the name Sara (pronounced Zara in German).

It is also the English form of the name Zaïre, the central character of Voltaire's 1732 play Zaïre (The Tragedy of Zara)

Its popularity may be influenced by the naming of Princess Anne's daughter Zara Phillips in 1981, and the Spanish fashion store Zara.^[3]

Another derivation, unrelated to the above, is the Bulgarian name Zara (Зара) which is a diminutive of Zaharina or Zaharinka.^[4]

Notable people with this name

Given name

Zara Noor Abbas (a.k.a. Zara Noor Siddiqui; born 1990), Pakistani actress
Zara Abid (1992–2020), Pakistani model
Zara Alvarez (1981-2020), Filipina social activist
Zara Aronson (1864–1944), Sydney-based journalist
Zara Backman (1875–1949), Swedish actress
Dame Zara Bate (1909–1989), Australian fashion designer, wife of Harold Holt
Zara Bolton (1914-1994), Irish golfer
Zara Cully (1892–1978), American actress
Zara Salim Davidson (born 1973), Malaysian royal
Zara Dampney (born 1986), British volleyball player
Zara Davis (born 1966), English windsurfer
Zara Dawson (born 1983), English actress and television presenter
Zara Dolukhanova (1918–2007), Armenian mezzo-soprano singer
Zara DuPont (1869–1946), American suffragist
Zara Foley (born 2002), Irish footballer
Zara Glover (born 1982), English ten-pin bowler
Zara Holland, British television personality
Zara Hore-Ruthven, Countess of Gowrie (1879–1965), Anglo-Irish wife of the Earl of Gowrie, Governor-General of Australia
Zara Kay (born 1992), secular activist
Zara Larsson (born 1997), Swedish singer
Zara Leghissa (born 1970), Swedish politician
Zara Levina (1906–1976), Ukrainian pianist and composer
Zara Long (born 1970), British swimmer
Zara McDermott (born 1996), British media personality
Zara McFarlane (born 1983), British musician
Zara Mints (1927–1990), Russian-Estonian literary scientist, wife of Yuri Lotman
Zara Mohammed (born ca. 1991), Scottish faith leader
Zara Mullooly (born 2002), British Paralympic swimmer
Zara Nakhimovskaya (born 1934), Latvian chess player
Zara Nelsova (1918–2002), Canadian cellist
Zara Northover (born 1984), Jamaican shot putter
Zara Nutley (1926–2016), British television actress
Zara Peerzada (born 1992), Pakistani model
Zara Rutherford (born 2002), Belgian-British aviator
Zara Schmelen (c. 1793–1831), Southern African translator
Zara Sheikh (born 1982), Pakistani model and Lollywood actress
Zara Steiner (1928–2020), American-born British historian and academic
Zara Tindall (née Phillips; born 1981), daughter of Princess Anne of the United Kingdom
Zara Turner (born ca. 1968), British actress
Zara Whites (born 1968), Dutch television personality, activist and former pornographic actress
Zara A. Wilson (1840–?), American reformer and lawyer
Zara Wright (active 1920), American author based in Chicago
Zara Yaqob (1399–1468), Emperor of Ethiopia (1434–1468)
Zaara Yesmin (born 1997), Indian actress
Zara Zarib, Bangladeshi actor

Surname

Adhisty Zara (born 2003), Indonesian singer
Alberto da Zara (1889–1951), Italian admiral
Antonio Zara (died 1621), Roman Catholic prelate
Bert Zara (active 1969–1975), Australian rugby league player
Christopher Zara (born 1970), American writer
Gregorio Y. Zara (1902–1978), Filipino engineer and physicist
Zdeněk Žára (1932–2002), Czechoslovak rower

Fictional characters

Zara (character), a DC Comics supervillain
Zara, the antagonist of the 2007 video game Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey
Zara Amaro, daughter of Detective Nick Amaro in the TV series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Zara Asker, head of CHERUB in the teenage spy novels by Robert Muchamore
Zara Carmichael in TV series Doctors
Zara Dearborn, antagonist in Queen of Air and Darkness, novel by Cassandra Clare
Zara Morgan in TV series Hollyoaks
Zara the Starlight Fairy, a character from the Rainbow Magic book franchise

References

^ "Zara", Wîkîferheng (in Kurdish), 2020-10-04, retrieved 2023-11-28
^ "Kratka imena koja nisu u top 50, a imaju posebno značenje". www.index.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2024-09-22.
^ "Zara (1)". Benind the Name. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
^ "Zara (2)". Benind the Name. Retrieved 1 February 2014.

This page or section lists people that share the same given name or the same family name.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.

[1] "Zara", Wîkîferheng (in Kurdish), 2020-10-04, retrieved 2023-11-28

[:0-2] "Kratka imena koja nisu u top 50, a imaju posebno značenje". www.index.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2024-09-22.

[BTN-1-3] "Zara (1)". Benind the Name. Retrieved 1 February 2014.

[4] "Zara (2)". Benind the Name. Retrieved 1 February 2014.

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