Gender | Female |
---|---|
Word/name | Gaelic, Sanskrit, Romanian |
Meaning |
Queen StarGoddess of the sea Diamond |
Related names | , Tajra |
Queen
Tara is a given name with multiple meanings in different cultures.
It is also sometimes a nickname for Tamara, as an alternative to Tammy. In the Royal Engineers it is a common for a Sergeant Major to be referred to as Tara, after the wrestler who was a Sergeant Major and served in Burma during World War II, although the practice is now dying out.
The name is popular in Ireland and Australia. It was popular in the United States during the 1970s, probably due to Tara being the name of the O'Hara's plantation in the 1939 movie Gone with the Wind, and the characters Tara King in the 1960s British television series The Avengers and Tara Martin on the American soap opera All My Children in the early 1970s. In Ireland, from 2000–2005 it ranked between the 30th and 40th most popular girl's name. In Eastern Europe the name Tara means "country" or "land"; the word derives from the Wallachian area.
Since 1968 the name Tara is currently accepted as being exclusively a female name in Western societies, although there have been men who carried the name (such as Tara Browne). It is also often considered a female name in the East, due to its connection to several goddesses. For instance, Tara is a female Buddha in Buddhism and a goddess in Hinduism. Additionally, "Tara" is also a common male or female name meaning "star".
Variant forms include Taira, Tagarah, Tarah, Taragh, Tarra, Terra, Tera, Thara, Tarragh, and Tariogh.