Zainab
Zainab was given to 338 girls in 2025, #810 among girls’ names; 7,326 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,250 Americans named Zainab and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 7 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zainab by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Zainab?
#810 among girls’ names, 2025
Zainab rose from #945 in 2015 to #810 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.16 to 0.21 per 1,000.
338 babies in 2025, the peak
Zainab peaked in 2025, when 338 girls were given it, #810 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 319 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 338 | #810 | 0.21 |
| 2024 | 319 | #851 | 0.20 |
| 2023 | 307 | #877 | 0.19 |
| 2022 | 298 | #918 | 0.18 |
| 2021 | 280 | #944 | 0.17 |
| 2020 | 264 | #965 | 0.16 |
| 2019 | 294 | #905 | 0.18 |
| 2018 | 280 | #950 | 0.16 |
| 2017 | 308 | #886 | 0.18 |
| 2016 | 301 | #918 | 0.17 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 288 | #945 | 0.16 |
| 2014 | 302 | #904 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 260 | #970 | 0.15 |
| 2012 | 247 | #1,030 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 219 | #1,122 | 0.12 |
| 2010 | 221 | #1,119 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 212 | #1,191 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 193 | #1,294 | 0.10 |
| 2007 | 171 | #1,401 | 0.09 |
| 2006 | 178 | #1,323 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 168 | #1,318 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 170 | #1,269 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 154 | #1,330 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 146 | #1,336 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 164 | #1,233 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 143 | #1,326 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 118 | #1,473 | 0.07 |
| 1998 | 116 | #1,478 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 93 | #1,693 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 98 | #1,596 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 84 | #1,741 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 77 | #1,855 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 51 | #2,482 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 44 | #2,770 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 49 | #2,542 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 47 | #2,564 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 32 | #3,323 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 30 | #3,300 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 33 | #2,968 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 28 | #3,274 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 27 | #3,326 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 26 | #3,327 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 23 | #3,550 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 29 | #3,090 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 18 | #4,341 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 19 | #4,145 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,692 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 12 | #5,560 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 7 | #8,435 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #9,278 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #10,610 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,674 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,401 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #7,004 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zainab a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zainab has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zainab: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zainab, and how old are they?
7,250 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 7,326 Americans ever recorded as Zainab. The median Zainab alive today is 13 years old; half are between 7 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 9,692 people named Zainab (9,652 women and girls, 40 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,535 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 63 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 679 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,690 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,820 |
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 Zainab born?
The states with the most babies named Zainab are New York, Michigan and Texas, with 38% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 50 | #342 | 2.6× |
| Michigan | 33 | #274 | 2.3× |
| Texas | 32 | #915 | 0.8× |
| California | 31 | #938 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 31 | #343 | 1.6× |
| Georgia | 15 | #709 | 0.7× |
| Virginia | 14 | #572 | 1.7× |
| New Jersey | 11 | #717 | 1.9× |
| Maryland | 10 | #547 | 1.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | #925 | 0.7× |
Where Zainab is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zainab is most over-represented in New York: since 1957 it was given 2.6 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 Zainab 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 10,267 babies since 1880, Zainab is the most given (71% of them). In 2025 it was given to 338 of their 494 babies (68%), 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 Zainab
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 Zainab and names like it
- Compare Zainab and ZaynabBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZainab peaked in 2025.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zainab since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Zainab.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zainab alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.