Clara (given name)

Clara

Giotto di Bondone's fresco of Saint Clare of Assisi
Gender	Female
Origin
Word/name	Latin
Meaning	clear, bright, famous
Other names
Related names	Clare, Clair/Claire, Clarissa, Klara

Clara or Klara is a female 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.

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".

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
• Clara Ayres (1880–1917), American nurse during the First World War
• Clara Barton (1821–1912), pioneer American teacher, nurse and humanitarian
• 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 Beyers (1880–1950), American actress
• Clara Bindi (born 1927), Italian actress
• Clara Blandick (1876–1962), American actress
• Clara Bonde (1806–1899), Swedish courtier and royal favourite
• Clara Bow (1905–1965), American actress
• Clara Louise Burnham (1854–1927), American novelist
• Clara Butt (1872–1936), English contralto
• 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 Eliot (1896–1976), economist
• Clara Shortridge Foltz (1849-1934), first female attorney on the Pacific Coast, suffrage leader, founder of the public defender movement
• Clara Grima (born 1971), Spanish mathematician
• Clara Haskil (1895–1960), Romanian classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical and early romantic repertoire
• Clara H. Hazelrigg (1861–1937), American author, educator and social reformer
• Clara Horton (1904–1976), American actress
• Clara Hughes (born 1972), Canadian athlete who has won medals in both the summer and winter Olympics
• Clara Immerwahr (1870–1915), German chemist, first wife of Fritz Haber
• Clara Landsberg (1873–1966), American educator
• Clara Lee (born 1985; real name Lee Sung-min), South Korean actress
• Clara Lemlich (1886–1982), union organizer, consumer activist, member of the Communist Party
• Clara Luper (1923–2011), American civil rights leader
• Clara Maniu (1842–1929), Romanian feminist
• Clara Morgane (born 1981), French porn star and singer
• Clara Mulholland (1849–1934), Irish writer
• Clara Ng (born 1973), Indonesian writer
• Klara Izabella Pacowa (1631–1685), politically active Polish court official
• Clara Paget (born 1988), British model and actress
• Clara Petacci (1912–1945), mistress of Benito Mussolini
• Clara Rockmore (1911–1998), Lithuanian virtuosa of the theremin
• Clara Schønfeld (1856–1938), Danish actress
• Clara Schumann (1819–1896), German pianist, composer
• Clara Sosa (born 1993), Paraguayan model, television personality and beauty queen
• Clara Harrison Stranahan (1831–1905), American author, college founder
• Clara Tott (1440–1520), German singer
• Clara Augusta Jones Trask (1839–1805), American writer
• Clara Ursin (1828–1890), Norwegian (originally Danish) stage actress and opera singer
• Clara Belle Williams (1885–1994), first African-American graduate of New Mexico State University
• Clara Kimball Young (1890–1960), American actress
• Clara Zetkin (1857–1933), German Marxist theorist and women's rights activist

Surname

• Aemilia Clara, Roman woman who lived in the 2nd century
• Didia Clara (born about 153), only child of the Roman Emperor Didius Julianus and Empress Manlia Scantilla

Animals with this name

• Clara the Rhinoceros, female Indian rhinoceros who became famous during 17 years of touring Europe in the mid-18th century
• Clara the Cow, live mascot in Greek Mega Channel's entertainment programme Poly tin Kyriaki (Too Much on Sunday)

Fictional characters

• Clara, the protagonist in Tchaikovsky's classic ballet The Nutcracker
• Clara in Bob Dylan's 1975 surrealist film Renaldo and Clara
• Clara in E. T. A. Hoffmann's short story "The Sandman"
• Aunt Clara, minor character in the 1960s television series Bewitched
• Princess Clara, character in the American animated television series Drawn Together
• Clara, protagonist in Elizabeth Spencer's novella The Light in the Piazza and in the book's film and musical adaptation
• Clara, the main antagonist in the 1972 animated film Snoopy Come Home
• Clara Belle in the video game MySims
• Clara Brereton, impoverished niece of Lady Denham in Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon (1817)
• Clara Clayton, wife of Doc Brown in the Back to the Future film series
• Clara Cluck, recurring character in Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons
• Clara de Clare, rich woman who becomes a nun in Walter Scott's Marmion
• María Clara de los Santos, heroine of the novel Noli Me Tángere
• Clara Durrant in Virginia Woolf's novel Jacob's Room
• Clara Oswald, companion of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor in the British sci-fi television series Doctor Who
• Clara Sesemann, the invalid friend in Johanna Spyri's Heidi
• Clara del Valle Trueba, the clairvoyant key female figure of Isabel Allende's first novel, The House of the Spirits

See also

• All pages with titles beginning with Clara
• All pages with titles containing Clara
• Chara (given name)
• Clara (disambiguation)
• Clare (given name)
• Claire (given name)