Saira

Meaning of Saira

Saira, most plausibly derived from the Arabic sāʾirah “traveler, one who journeys,” has circulated through Urdu- and Hindi-speaking communities for centuries and, by phonetic affinity, occasionally aligns with the Hebrew-derived Sarah, “princess.” In contemporary Anglo-American usage the name preserves its crisp disyllabic profile—SYE-ruh—while carrying layered cultural resonance: Qurʾanic associations with spiritual pilgrimage, a South Asian cinematic legacy through actress Saira Banu, and, more recently, transnational visibility via British media personalities such as Saira Khan. U.S. Social Security data depict a quietly persistent trajectory; since first registering in the early 1970s the name has remained in the lower quartile of the Top 1000, its annual occurrence fluctuating within a narrow statistical band yet never vanishing, a pattern suggestive of niche appeal rather than volatile fashion. For parents, then, Saira offers an etymology grounded in movement and exploration, a cross-cultural bridge between Islamic and Judeo-Christian lexicons, and a demographic profile that promises recognizability without saturation.