Entry № 2849 · Greek origin

Electra Electra — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ eh-LEK-trah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Greek
Meaning
"Amber (Sophocles + Mourning Becomes Electra + Strauss opera)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Greek)

A name that means "amber (sophocles + mourning becomes electra + strauss opera)".

Electra is from the Greek Ēléktrā (Ἠλέκτρα — amber, shining one). Electra in Greek mythology is the daughter of King Agamemnon of Mycenae and Queen Clytemnestra, sister of Orestes, Iphigenia, and Chrysothemis. Appears as protagonist in Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy (458 BCE), Sophocles's Electra (c. 410 BCE), and Euripides's Electra (c. The Electra complex was coined by Carl Jung (1913) as the feminine counterpart to Freud's Oedipus complex. Richard Strauss's opera Elektra (1909) with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal is a modern opera + German Expressionism masterwork.

Amber / shining (Greek).

The name in its native script.

Ἠλέκτρα
Transliteration
Ēléktrā
Pronunciation
/ ɪˈlɛk.trə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Electra stands.

Electra does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Electras before her.

Real people

In fiction
Electra (Greek)
Greek tragedy heroine.

Names connected to Electra.

The number behind Electra.

1

The Leader

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Electra reduce to 1, The Leader. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.