Zahir
Zahir was given to 356 boys in 2025, #738 among boys’ names; 4,784 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,730 Americans named Zahir and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zahir by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zahir mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zahir is “a male given name from Arabic.”
Borrowed from Arabic ظَاهِر (ẓāhir), ظٰهِر (ẓāhir). The surname is mostly found in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zahir?
#738 among boys’ names, 2025
Zahir rose from #1,209 in 2015 to #738 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.08 to 0.21 per 1,000.
356 babies in 2025, the peak
Zahir peaked in 2025, when 356 boys were given it, #738 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 341 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 356 | #738 | 0.21 |
| 2024 | 341 | #750 | 0.20 |
| 2023 | 346 | #755 | 0.20 |
| 2022 | 288 | #847 | 0.16 |
| 2021 | 276 | #853 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 255 | #890 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 233 | #937 | 0.13 |
| 2018 | 213 | #978 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 216 | #964 | 0.12 |
| 2016 | 178 | #1,104 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 153 | #1,209 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 172 | #1,116 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 137 | #1,276 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 136 | #1,292 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 114 | #1,446 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 139 | #1,262 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 119 | #1,424 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 116 | #1,440 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 139 | #1,271 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 108 | #1,446 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 95 | #1,511 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 75 | #1,715 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 75 | #1,668 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 62 | #1,846 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 59 | #1,886 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 61 | #1,794 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 57 | #1,773 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 33 | #2,594 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 38 | #2,256 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 19 | #3,669 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 17 | #3,844 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 19 | #3,588 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,993 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 11 | #5,225 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 14 | #4,221 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,367 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,923 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 10 | #4,777 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 6 | #6,707 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 8 | #5,139 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,964 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,478 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 8 | #4,999 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,955 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 6 | #6,238 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 10 | #3,852 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,499 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Zahir a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zahir has been given almost only to boys: 7 girls in 47 years of records.
Girls and boys named Zahir: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zahir, and how old are they?
4,730 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,784 Americans ever recorded as Zahir. The median Zahir alive today is 9 years old; half are between 4 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 2,808 people named Zahir (63 women and girls, 2,745 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,955 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 21 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 156 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,410 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,140 |
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 Zahir born?
The states with the most babies named Zahir are Texas, Florida and New York, with 32% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 39 | #721 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 31 | #568 | 1.2× |
| New York | 27 | #582 | 1.6× |
| California | 27 | #882 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 24 | #463 | 1.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #630 | 2.3× |
| New Jersey | 14 | #542 | 3.1× |
| Ohio | 14 | #675 | 0.3× |
| Massachusetts | 13 | #409 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 12 | #751 | 0.8× |
Where Zahir is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zahir is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1973 it was given 3.1 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 boys’ 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 Zahir 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 6,421 babies since 1880, Zahir is the most given (75% of them). In 2025 it was given to 356 of their 479 babies (74%), again the 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 Zahir
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 Zahir and names like it
- Compare Zahir and ZairBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZahir peaked in 2025.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zahir since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Zahir: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Zahir.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zahir alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.