Tara has two completely independent origins. In Sanskrit, tārā (तारा) means "star" — and Tara is the name of an important Buddhist bodhisattva, the female embodiment of compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. Green Tara and White Tara are among the most popular figures in Tibetan Buddhist iconography.
In Ireland, Tara (Teamhair) is the name of a hill in County Meath that was the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland — and a symbol of Irish national identity. Scarlett O'Hara's plantation in Gone With the Wind is named Tara in tribute.
The double origin — Buddhist star and Irish royal hill — has made Tara a name that travels easily.
Tara 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.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Tara reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.