Zahara
Zahara was given to 174 girls in 2025, #1,289 among girls’ names; 3,609 Americans have been recorded with it since 1986 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,580 Americans named Zahara and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zahara by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Zahara?
#1,289 among girls’ names, 2025
Zahara rose from #1,424 in 2015 to #1,289 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.09 to 0.11 per 1,000.
202 babies in 2021, the peak
Zahara peaked in 2021, when 202 girls were given it, #1,197 among girls’ names. The 174 births of 2025 are 86% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 174 | #1,289 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 197 | #1,206 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 181 | #1,272 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 202 | #1,198 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 202 | #1,197 | 0.12 |
| 2020 | 163 | #1,352 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 165 | #1,372 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 150 | #1,473 | 0.09 |
| 2017 | 160 | #1,430 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 166 | #1,405 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 163 | #1,424 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 135 | #1,601 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 137 | #1,575 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 159 | #1,444 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 151 | #1,489 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 152 | #1,488 | 0.09 |
| 2009 | 148 | #1,537 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 160 | #1,473 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 134 | #1,665 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 173 | #1,350 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 81 | #2,252 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 24 | #5,369 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 31 | #4,301 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 16 | #7,034 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 24 | #5,002 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 17 | #6,473 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 11 | #8,787 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 14 | #7,092 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,787 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 13 | #7,119 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 16 | #5,950 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 15 | #6,308 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 9 | #9,546 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 5 | #15,589 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,976 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,868 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,749 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 10 | #7,681 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 6 | #11,308 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 5 | #12,819 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zahara a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zahara has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 40 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zahara: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zahara, and how old are they?
3,580 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,609 Americans ever recorded as Zahara. The median Zahara alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 2,419 people named Zahara (2,413 women and girls, 6 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,513 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 108 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,290 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,180 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Zahara born?
The states with the most babies named Zahara are Florida, California and New York, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 15 | #1,052 | 1.4× |
| California | 14 | #1,646 | 0.8× |
| New York | 13 | #1,161 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 13 | #1,784 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 11 | #870 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 10 | #958 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 8 | #1,211 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,238 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,276 | 0.6× |
| District of Columbia | 6 | #149 | 0.8× |
Where Zahara is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zahara is most over-represented in New York: since 1986 it was given 1.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Zahara with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 43,939 babies since 1880, Zahara is the fourth most given (8.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 174 of their 2,520 babies (6.9%), again the fourth most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Zahara
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Zahara and names like it
- Compare Zahara and ZaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZahara peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zahara since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Zahara.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zahara alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.