Lyra

Lyra is the Latin and Greek word for a lyre, the small harp of the ancient world. It is also the name of a constellation in the northern summer sky, said to look like a lyre, which holds the bright star Vega. So the name carries both music and stars.

Many parents meet it through Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books, whose heroine is Lyra Belacqua, a girl from Oxford. The books, and the later television series, did a great deal to make it a first name.

In Ireland Lyra first appears in the CSO records in 2009 and was rare for its first decade. It has climbed in the 2020s, and 2025 was its best year yet, with 20 girls and a combined rank of number 217. It is rarer in Northern Ireland, where 4 girls were named Lyra in 2025.