Zein
Zein was given to 29 boys in 2025, #3,845 among boys’ names; 455 Americans have been recorded with it since 1991 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zein by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Zein?
#3,845 among boys’ names, 2025
Zein rose from #4,887 in 2015 to #3,845 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 10.4 to 17.0 per million.
36 babies in 2018, the peak
Zein peaked in 2018, when 36 boys were given it, #3,236 among boys’ names. The 29 births of 2025 are 81% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 29 | #3,845 | 17.0 |
| 2024 | 25 | #4,316 | 14.5 |
| 2023 | 29 | #3,877 | 17.0 |
| 2022 | 28 | #3,990 | 16.0 |
| 2021 | 22 | #4,620 | 12.6 |
| 2020 | 23 | #4,419 | 13.3 |
| 2019 | 21 | #4,801 | 11.7 |
| 2018 | 36 | #3,236 | 19.8 |
| 2017 | 14 | #6,329 | 7.6 |
| 2016 | 25 | #4,195 | 13.2 |
Every recorded year (28)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 20 | #4,887 | 10.4 |
| 2014 | 9 | #8,769 | 4.7 |
| 2013 | 15 | #5,916 | 7.9 |
| 2012 | 13 | #6,613 | 6.9 |
| 2011 | 23 | #4,351 | 12.1 |
| 2010 | 10 | #8,124 | 5.2 |
| 2009 | 12 | #7,224 | 6.0 |
| 2008 | 10 | #8,315 | 4.9 |
| 2007 | 12 | #7,082 | 5.8 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,988 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 11 | #7,085 | 5.5 |
| 2004 | 13 | #6,130 | 6.5 |
| 2003 | 8 | #8,629 | 4.0 |
| 2002 | 12 | #6,076 | 6.2 |
| 2001 | 7 | #9,230 | 3.6 |
| 2000 | 7 | #9,096 | 3.6 |
| 1999 | 6 | #9,896 | 3.1 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,638 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Zein a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zein has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 28 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zein: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zein, and how old are they?
An estimated 451 Americans named Zein and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 16. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 468 people named Zein (102 women and girls, 366 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 302 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 5,263 babies since 1880, Zein is the third most given (8.6% of them). In 2025 it was given to 29 of their 289 babies (10%), 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 Zein
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 Zein and names like it
- Compare Zein and ZenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sZein peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zein since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Zein.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zein alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.