Zahra
Zahra was given to 562 girls in 2025, #540 among girls’ names; 9,395 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,310 Americans named Zahra and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zahra by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zahra mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zahra is “a female given name from Arabic.”
Borrowed from Arabic زَهْراء (zahrāʔ), an epithet of Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad. As a surname, it is predominantly found in Egypt.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zahra?
#540 among girls’ names, 2025
Zahra rose from #691 in 2015 to #540 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.23 to 0.35 per 1,000.
562 babies in 2025, the peak
Zahra peaked in 2025, when 562 girls were given it, #540 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 558 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 562 | #540 | 0.35 |
| 2024 | 558 | #543 | 0.34 |
| 2023 | 546 | #555 | 0.34 |
| 2022 | 491 | #608 | 0.30 |
| 2021 | 412 | #700 | 0.25 |
| 2020 | 493 | #592 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 511 | #595 | 0.30 |
| 2018 | 520 | #588 | 0.31 |
| 2017 | 455 | #655 | 0.26 |
| 2016 | 433 | #680 | 0.24 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 411 | #691 | 0.23 |
| 2014 | 295 | #917 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 285 | #901 | 0.16 |
| 2012 | 267 | #955 | 0.15 |
| 2011 | 246 | #1,018 | 0.14 |
| 2010 | 222 | #1,114 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 220 | #1,153 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 187 | #1,324 | 0.10 |
| 2007 | 208 | #1,211 | 0.11 |
| 2006 | 153 | #1,461 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 172 | #1,300 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 122 | #1,606 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 139 | #1,430 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 118 | #1,582 | 0.07 |
| 2001 | 108 | #1,683 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 113 | #1,574 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 89 | #1,800 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 92 | #1,731 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 101 | #1,592 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 85 | #1,764 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 82 | #1,771 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 48 | #2,620 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 46 | #2,670 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 56 | #2,345 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 42 | #2,835 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 47 | #2,563 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 50 | #2,364 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 38 | #2,796 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 48 | #2,273 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 40 | #2,510 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 43 | #2,360 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 29 | #3,067 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 41 | #2,358 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 26 | #3,341 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 20 | #4,003 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 14 | #5,243 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 25 | #3,332 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 24 | #3,280 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 16 | #4,423 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 12 | #5,207 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,512 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,223 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,659 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zahra a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zahra has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 53 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zahra: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zahra, and how old are they?
9,310 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 9,395 Americans ever recorded as Zahra. The median Zahra alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 11,597 people named Zahra (11,576 women and girls, 21 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,400 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 119 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 722 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,530 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,940 |
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 Zahra born?
The states with the most babies named Zahra are New York, Texas and California, with 34% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 62 | #275 | 1.8× |
| Texas | 60 | #538 | 0.9× |
| California | 55 | #591 | 1.0× |
| Virginia | 34 | #245 | 1.6× |
| New Jersey | 31 | #275 | 1.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 30 | #373 | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 28 | #329 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 25 | #469 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 24 | #713 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 23 | #470 | 1.1× |
Where Zahra is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zahra is most over-represented in New York: since 1973 it was given 1.8 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 Zahra 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 56,346 babies since 1880, Zahra is the third most given (17% of them). In 2025 it was given to 562 of their 2,923 babies (19%), the second most given that year.
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 Zahra
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 Zahra and names like it
- Compare Zahra and ZaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZahra peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zahra since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Zahra: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Zahra.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zahra alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.