Nara Family History

Finnish (Närä): habitational name from Närä in Torne Valley in Lapland named for its location near the rapids (from närä ‘shallow rapids wide flowing place in the river’). Established as a hereditary surname since the 19th century.

Indian (Haryana Andhra Pradesh): Jat and Kamma (agrarian caste) name apparently from Sanskrit nara ‘male masculine’. Nara was the name of an ancient king of Kashmir (flourished c. 900 BC).

Japanese: from any of several places so named all over Japan written many different ways phonetically apparently from a word meaning ‘level’. The famous ancient city of Nara originally called Heijō no Kyō 平城京 (‘Capital City of Peace’) was built on a level plain and the character 平 hei (also pronounced nara) means both ‘peace’ and ‘level’ so the name could be a pun.

The surname is mainly found in northeastern Japan. The best known form is 奈良.

Filipino: topographic name from nara the name of a tree native to the Philippines. Compare Narra.