Submitted Name Revision History

Variant transcription of UMAIRA as well as a variant spelling of OMAIRA (in Latin America).

A famous bearer of this name was Omayra Sánchez Garzón (1972-1985), a 13-year old Colombian girl who was among the thousands of people killed in the Armero tragedy. Armero was a town that was completely destroyed during the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano on November 13, 1985. Omayra Sánchez was one of the inhabitants of the town. She survived the initial eruption and subsequent destruction of her town, but was trapped under the debris of her house to such a degree that rescue workers were unable to free her, which ultimately resulted into her death three days later. A picture of Omayra in her final hours, made by the French photojournalist Frank Fournier (b. 1948), would go on to become the World Press Photo of the Year for 1986.