Clara or Klara is a given name. It is the feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which meant "clear, bright, famous". Various early male Christian saints were named Clarus; the feminine form became popular after the 13th-century Saint Clare of Assisi (called Chiara in Italian), one of the followers of Saint Francis, who renounced her privileged background and founded the order of Poor Clares. However, Clara is also a rare male name.
Clare was the main English form of the name used in the Middle Ages, but the Latin spelling Clara became more popular in the 19th century.
Glara is a related Kurdish name with a common origin, meaning "vision or brightness".
Contents
People with this name
Given name
Clara Alm (born 1996), Swedish footballer
Clara Amfo (born 1984), British broadcaster and presenter
Clara Arthur (1858–1929), American suffragist
Klara Ashrafyan (1924–1999), Soviet Indologist
Clara Ayres (1880–1917), American nurse during the First World War
Clara Azurmendi (born 1998), Spanish badminton player
Clara Barton (1821–1912), pioneer American teacher, nurse and humanitarian
Clara Basiana (born 1991), Spanish former competitor in synchronized swimming
Clara Doty Bates (1838–1895), American author
Clara Nettie Bates (1876–1966), American editor, writer, clubwoman
Clara Bancroft Beatley (1858–1923), American educator, lecturer, author
Clara Beranger (1886–1956), American screenwriter of the silent film era
Clara Beyers (1880–1950), American actress
Clara Bindi (1927–2022), Italian actress
Klara Birtić (born 2002), Croatian handball player
Clara Blandick (1876–1962), American actress
Klara Bleyer 2004), German synchronised swimmer
Clara Bonde (1806–1899), Swedish courtier and royal favourite
Clara Bow (1905–1965), American actress
Clara T. Bracy (1848–1941), English stage and silent film actress
Clara Brown (1800–1885), former enslaved woman from Virginia and Kentucky who became a community leader and philanthropist
Clara Louise Burnham (1854–1927), American novelist
Clara Butt (1872–1936), English contralto
Clara Campoamor (1888 - 1972), Mother of the Spanish feminist movement
Clara Calamai (1909–1998), Italian actress
Clara H. Sully Carhart (1843–1913), Canadian-born American educator and reformer
Klara Castanho (born 2000), Brazilian actress
Klára Červenková (1873–1945), Czech geographer
Clara Germana Cele, South African woman stated in 1906 to have suffered demonic possession
Clara Marguerite Christian (1895–1964), first black woman to study at the University of Edinburgh
Clara Chung (born 1987), Korean-American singer/guitarist also known by her stage name, Clara C
Clara Rankin Coblentz (1863–1933), American social reformer
Clara Collet (1860–1948), British economist and civil servant
Clara Novello Davies (1861–1943), Welsh singer
Clara Driscoll (1881–1945), Texas-born philanthropist
Clara Eliot (1896–1976), economist
Clara Faragó (1905–1944), Hungarian chess master
Clara Shortridge Foltz (1849–1934), first female attorney on the Pacific Coast
Clara Friedman (1920–2015), Israeli chess player
Clara Furse (born 1957), Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange
Clara Gorry (born 1989), Swedish footballer
Clara Grima (born 1971), Spanish mathematician
Clara Hammerl (1858–1931), Mallorcan teacher and first woman to lead a Spanish financial institution
Clara Haskil (1895–1960), Romanian classical pianist
Clara Hätzlerin (c. 1430–1476), professional scribe in 15th-century Augsburg
Clara H. Hazelrigg (1861–1937), American author, educator, and social reformer
Clara Hill, German musician
Clara de Hirsch (born 1833–1899), Belgian businesswoman and philanthropist
Klara Hitler (née Pölzl) (1860–1907), Mother of Adolf Hitler
Clara Cleghorn Hoffman (1831–1908), American educator and temperance reformer
Klara Honegger (1860–1940), Swiss suffragist and pacifist activist
Clara Horton (1904–1976), American actress
Clara Hughes (born 1972), Canadian athlete who has won medals in both the summer and winter Olympics
Klára Hymlárová (born 1999), Czech ice hockey player
Clara Immerwahr (1870–1915), German chemist, first wife of Fritz Haber
Clara-Jumi Kang (born 1987), South Korean-German musician
Clara Louise Kellogg (1842–1916), American soprano
Clara Klingenström (born 1995), Swedish singer-songwriter
Klára B. Kokas (1907–1962), Hungarian art director
Klára Koukalová (born 1982), Czech tennis player
Clara Shafira Krebs (born 2002), Indonesian beauty pageant titleholder, model, and entrepreneur
Klara Kristalova (born 1967), Czech sculptor
Clara Lachmann (1864–1920), Danish-Swedish patron of the arts
Clara LaMore (1926–2021), American competition swimmer
Clara Landsberg (1873–1966), American educator
Clara Lanza (1858 – c. 1939), American novelist
Clara Larter (1847–1936), English botanist
Clara Ledesma (1924–1999), Dominican artist
Clara Lee (born 1985; real name Lee Sung-min), South Korean actress
Clara Lemlich (1886–1982), union organizer and consumer activist
Clara Lescurat (born 1988), Argentine professional boxer
Clara López (born 1950), Colombian politician
Klara Luchko (1925–2005), Soviet actress
Clara Luciani (born 1992), French singer-songwriter and musician
Clara Luper (1923–2011), American civil rights leader
Clara Maass (1876–1901), American nurse
Clara MacNaughton (1854–1948), American dentist and suffragist
Clara Mamet (born 1994), American actress
Clara Maniu (1842–1929), Romanian feminist
Clara McMillen (1898–1982), American researcher
Clara Milburn (1883–1961), British diarist
Klara Milch (1891–1970), Austrian swimmer
Clara Moneke (born 1998), Brazilian actress and model
Clara Jessup Moore (1824–1899), American philanthropist and philosopher
Clara Morgane (born 1981), French porn star and singer
Clara Mulholland (1849–1934), Irish writer
Klara Myrén (born 1991), Swedish ice hockey player
Clara Neal (1870–1936), English teacher and suffragist
Clara Ng (born 1973), Indonesian writer
Clara Novello (1818–1908), English soprano
Clara Nunes (1942–1983), Brazilian singer
Clara O'Shea (1894–1970), American politician
Klara Izabella Pacowa (1631–1685), politically active Polish court official
Clara Pacini (born 2002), French actress
Clara Paget (born 1988), British model and actress
Clara Peeters (circa 1594–1657), 17th century Flemish painter
Clara Pereira (born 2010), Brazilian rhythmic gymnast
Clara Petacci (1912–1945), mistress of Benito Mussolini
Clara Pinto-Correia (born 1960), Portuguese novelist
Clara Ponsatí (born 1957), Catalan economist and politician
Clara Raven (1905–1994), American physician
Clara Reeve (1729–1807), English novelist
Clara Rockmore (1911–1998), Lithuanian virtuosa of the theremin
Klara Rumyanova (1929–2004), Soviet actress, voice of Cheburashka
Clara Sánchez (writer) (born 1955), Spanish novelist
Clara Sanchez (cyclist) (née Sanchez, born 1983), French cyclist
Clara Schønfeld (1856–1938), Danish actress
Clara Schumann (1819–1896), German pianist, composer
Clara Segura (born 1974), Catalan actress
Clara Seley (1905–2003), Russian Empire-born American visual artist
Clara Shafira Krebs (born 2002), Indonesian beauty queen
Clara Sherman (1914–2010), Navajo artist
Clara Soccini (born 1999), Italian singer-songwriter, actress and model
Clara Sorrenti (born 1994), Canadian Twitch streamer and transgender activist, known online as Keffals
Clara Sosa (born 1993), Paraguayan model, television personality and beauty queen
Clara Southern (1860–1940), Australian artist
Clara E. Speight-Humberston (1862–1936), Canadian research scientist and scientific writer
Clara Harrison Stranahan (1831–1905), American author, college founder
Clara Swain (1834–1910), American physician and Christian missionary
Clara Tauson (born 2002), Danish tennis player
Clara Thomas (academic) (1919–2013), Canadian academic.
Clara Tott (1440–1520), German singer
Clara Tschudi (1856–1945), Norwegian writer
Clara Augusta Jones Trask (1839–1805), American writer
Clara Udofa (born 1978), Nigerian tennis player
Etso Clara Ugbodaga-Ngu, Nigerian artist and teacher.
Clara Ursin (1828–1890), Norwegian (originally Danish) stage actress and opera singer
Clara Vădineanu (born 1986), Romanian handballer
Clara Vidal (born 1983), Venezuelan politician
Clara de Vries (1915–1942), Dutch jazz trumpeter
Clara Ward (1924–1973), American gospel singer
Clara Webster (1821–1844), British dancer
Clara Weekes (1852–1937), Australian educator, suffragist, labor leader and pacifist
Clara Westhoff (1878–1954), German sculptor and artist
Clara Belle Williams (1885–1994), first African-American graduate of New Mexico State University
Clara Woltering (born 1983), German handball goalkeeper
Clara Kimball Young (1890–1960), American actress
Clara Zetkin (1857–1933), German Marxist theorist and women's rights activist
Animals with this name
Clara the Rhinoceros, female Indian rhinoceros who became famous during 17 years of touring Europe in the mid-18th century
Fictional characters
Clara (Mirbeau), the main character in Octave Mirbeau's 1899 novel The Torture Garden
Princess Clara, in the American animated television series Drawn Together
Clara Clayton, wife of Doc Brown in the Back to the Future film series
Clara Cluck, a recurring character in Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons
Clara del Valle Trueba, the clairvoyant key female figure of Isabel Allende's novel The House of the Spirits
Clara Oswald, companion of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor in the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who