Astra comes from the Latin astrum, plural astra, and means "star" or "stars", as in the motto per aspera ad astra, through hardships to the stars. It is a sister of Stella and Astrid in sound and a cousin of Nova and Luna in spirit, part of the celestial names that have risen in the 2020s. In the United States Astra ranked number 11941 in 2000, jumped from number 6200 in 2019 to number 2934 in 2020 and stood at number 2612 in 2025 with 66 girls.