Tara (name)

Tara (name)

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 somewhat dated in the United States, being most popular during the 1970s (like Tamara), but is still very popular in Ireland and Australia. Its American popularity was probably due to Tara being the name of the O'Hara's plantation in the 1939 movie Gone with the Wind. It was the name of Tara King, a character in the 1960s British television The Avengers. It was also the name of Tara Martin, a popular character on the American soap opera All My Children in the early 1970s. These characters probably contributed to the name's rise in popularity during the 1970s. In Ireland, from 2000–2005 it ranked between the 30th and 40th most popular girl's name.

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".