Clara (given name)

Clara

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.

People with this name

Given name

• 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 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 favorite
• Clara Bow (1905–1965), American actress
• Clara Louise Burnham (1854-1827), American novelist
• Clara Butt (1872-1936), English contralto
• Clara Germana Cele, South African woman said in 1906 to have suffered demonic possession
• Clara Chung (born 1987), a Korean-American singer/guitarist also known by her stage name, Clara C
• Clara Eliot (1896 – 1976), economist
• Clara Haskil (1895–1960), a Romanian classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical and early romantic repertoire.
• Clara H. Hazelrigg (1861-1937), American author, educator, 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 and 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, and member of the Communist Party
• Clara Luper (1923–2011), American civil rights leader
• Clara Maniu (1842–1929), Romanian feminist
• Clara Morgane (born 1981), a French porn star and singer
• Klara Izabella Pacowa (1631-1685), politically active Polish court official
• Clara Rockmore (1911–1998), Lithuanian virtuosa of the theremin
• Clara Schønfeld (1856–1938), Danish actress
• Clara Schumann (1819–1896), German pianist
• 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 Kimball Young (1890–1960), American actress
• Clara Zetkin (1857–1933), German Marxist theorist, activist, and feminist

Surname

• Aemilia Clara, a 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, a 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 show Poly tin Kyriaki (Too Much on Sunday)

Fictional characters

• Clara, protagonist in Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker
• Clara in Bob Dylan's 1975 surrealist movie Renaldo and Clara
• Clara in E. T. A. Hoffmann's Der Sandmann
• Aunt Clara in the TV series Bewitched
• Princess Clara in the US animated TV series Drawn Together
• Clara Belle in the video game MySims
• Clara Clayton, wife of Doc Brown in the Back to the Future film series
• Clara Cluck, recurring character in Mickey Mouse cartoons
• Clara de Clare, a rich woman who becomes a nun in Walter Scott's Marmion.
• Clara Durrant in Virginia Woolf's novel Jacob's Room
• Clara Oswald in the TV series Doctor Who
• María Clara de los Santos, heroine of the novel Noli Me Tangere
• Clara, the main antagonist in the 1972 movie Snoopy Come Home
• Clara Sesemann, the invalid friend in Johanna Spyri's Heidi

See also

• Clara (disambiguation)
• Clare (given name)
• Claire (given name)