Zaire
Zaire was given to 601 boys in 2025, #503 among boys’ names; 10,897 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,800 Americans named Zaire 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 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zaire by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Zaire?
#503 among boys’ names, 2025
Zaire rose from #879 in 2015 to #503 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.13 to 0.35 per 1,000.
674 babies in 2023, the peak
Zaire peaked in 2023, when 674 babies were given it (655 boys, #466 among boys’ names). The 608 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 90% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #13,152 | 601 | #503 |
| 2024 | 13 | #8,422 | 655 | #471 |
| 2023 | 19 | #6,396 | 655 | #466 |
| 2022 | 12 | #9,041 | 615 | #496 |
| 2021 | 16 | #7,240 | 557 | #529 |
| 2020 | 12 | #8,933 | 542 | #528 |
| 2019 | 22 | #5,785 | 498 | #561 |
| 2018 | 17 | #7,090 | 389 | #657 |
| 2017 | 33 | #4,381 | 317 | #747 |
| 2016 | 23 | #5,784 | 305 | #781 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 23 | #5,821 | 254 | #879 |
| 2014 | 39 | #3,920 | 238 | #905 |
| 2013 | 44 | #3,569 | 220 | #930 |
| 2012 | 42 | #3,778 | 209 | #967 |
| 2011 | 33 | #4,462 | 224 | #905 |
| 2010 | 49 | #3,357 | 222 | #913 |
| 2009 | 48 | #3,456 | 238 | #887 |
| 2008 | 58 | #3,014 | 257 | #845 |
| 2007 | 57 | #3,095 | 268 | #803 |
| 2006 | 59 | #2,938 | 248 | #821 |
| 2005 | 42 | #3,581 | 211 | #873 |
| 2004 | 57 | #2,845 | 173 | #969 |
| 2003 | 47 | #3,181 | 205 | #847 |
| 2002 | 54 | #2,813 | 182 | #893 |
| 2001 | 60 | #2,566 | 140 | #1,047 |
| 2000 | 83 | #2,011 | 203 | #796 |
| 1999 | 81 | #1,958 | 180 | #841 |
| 1998 | 68 | #2,142 | 116 | #1,110 |
| 1997 | 76 | #1,923 | 128 | #1,003 |
| 1996 | 64 | #2,147 | 85 | #1,300 |
| 1995 | 50 | #2,544 | 63 | #1,521 |
| 1994 | 33 | #3,441 | 61 | #1,537 |
| 1993 | 21 | #4,819 | 28 | #2,634 |
| 1992 | 14 | #6,643 | 31 | #2,405 |
| 1991 | under 5 | 21 | #3,098 | |
| 1990 | 10 | #8,487 | 19 | #3,302 |
| 1989 | 14 | #6,150 | 8 | #6,215 |
| 1988 | under 5 | 10 | #4,778 | |
| 1987 | 5 | #13,242 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 10 | #7,126 | 5 | #7,812 |
| 1983 | under 5 | 6 | #6,230 | |
| 1982 | under 5 | 5 | #7,360 | |
| 1981 | under 5 | 5 | #7,277 | |
| 1980 | under 5 | 5 | #7,284 | |
| 1979 | 5 | #11,959 | 10 | #4,063 |
| 1978 | 5 | #11,463 | 10 | #3,853 |
| 1977 | under 5 | 13 | #3,199 | |
| 1976 | under 5 | 6 | #5,580 | |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,977 | 17 | #2,537 |
| 1974 | under 5 | 7 | #4,627 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Zaire a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 10,897 Americans recorded as Zaire, 13% are girls and 87% boys. In 2025 it went to 7 girls and 601 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Zaire: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zaire, and how old are they?
10,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 10,897 Americans ever recorded as Zaire. The median Zaire alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 5,857 people named Zaire (1,174 women and girls, 4,683 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,255 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 78 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 550 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,060 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 6,080 |
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 Zaire born?
The states with the most babies named Zaire are Texas, Georgia and Florida, with 31% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 67 | #509 | 0.5× |
| Georgia | 56 | #222 | 1.9× |
| Florida | 53 | #372 | 1.0× |
| California | 50 | #600 | 0.6× |
| New York | 42 | #418 | 1.8× |
| North Carolina | 24 | #458 | 1.2× |
| Tennessee | 20 | #409 | 0.4× |
| Indiana | 18 | #411 | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 17 | #567 | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 17 | #334 | 0.5× |
Where Zaire is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zaire is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1974 it was given 2.0 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 Zaire 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 11,241 babies since 1880, Zaire is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 608 of their 619 babies (98%), 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 Zaire
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 Zaire and names like it
- Compare Zaire and ZhaireBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZaire peaked in 2023.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zaire since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Zaire.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zaire alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.