Spira, Spiro is Jewish family of scholars and rabbis originated from Speyer, Rhenish Bavaria, with numerous branches in other parts of Germany, and in Bohemia, Galicia, and Poland. It originally bore the name "Ashkenazi," to distinguish it from the Kahane or Katz-Spira family. Many prominent families of Bohemia added to their names that of "Spiro" or "Spira"; e.g., Frankl-Spiro, Wiener-Spiro, and Porges-Spiro.
The names Spira, Spiro, Shapira and Shapiro are derived from Speyer, a city in Germany, south of Mannheim on the Rhine river. Primarily associated with people of Jewish descent, the names "Spira" and "Shapira" (or "Spiro" / "Shapiro") are sometimes used interchangeably in genealogical records, due to the nearly identical Hebrew spelling, שפיר×.