Zen
Zen is given to both girls and boys: 43 girls and 185 boys were given it in 2025 (#3,574 among girls’ names and #1,144 among boys’, #2,035 among all names counting both); 3,313 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,280 Americans named Zen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 4 and 15.
Zen dropped 188 places in 2025, the #8 drop among the boys’ top 1,000 of 2024.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Zen?
#1,144 among boys’ names, 2025
Zen rose from #1,954 in 2015 to #1,144 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.04 to 0.11 per 1,000.
321 babies in 2022, the peak
Zen peaked in 2022, when 321 babies were given it (256 boys, #906 among boys’ names). The 228 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 71% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #3,574 | 185 | #1,144 |
| 2024 | 41 | #3,757 | 238 | #956 |
| 2023 | 60 | #2,851 | 242 | #936 |
| 2022 | 65 | #2,688 | 256 | #906 |
| 2021 | 52 | #3,155 | 166 | #1,187 |
| 2020 | 48 | #3,280 | 160 | #1,199 |
| 2019 | 46 | #3,449 | 128 | #1,393 |
| 2018 | 30 | #4,656 | 112 | #1,529 |
| 2017 | 24 | #5,513 | 92 | #1,716 |
| 2016 | 25 | #5,440 | 74 | #1,973 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 23 | #5,825 | 75 | #1,954 |
| 2014 | 11 | #10,114 | 88 | #1,729 |
| 2013 | 9 | #11,952 | 63 | #2,137 |
| 2012 | 15 | #8,201 | 56 | #2,324 |
| 2011 | 13 | #9,137 | 63 | #2,127 |
| 2010 | 13 | #9,217 | 60 | #2,210 |
| 2009 | 9 | #12,410 | 70 | #2,008 |
| 2008 | 8 | #13,809 | 74 | #1,947 |
| 2007 | 22 | #6,317 | 52 | #2,472 |
| 2006 | 6 | #17,134 | 51 | #2,447 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 50 | #2,360 | |
| 2004 | 10 | #10,679 | 51 | #2,278 |
| 2003 | 5 | #18,402 | 38 | #2,669 |
| 2002 | 6 | #15,409 | 36 | #2,680 |
| 2001 | under 5 | 38 | #2,556 | |
| 2000 | 6 | #15,012 | 32 | #2,857 |
| 1999 | under 5 | 31 | #2,790 | |
| 1998 | 5 | #16,577 | 32 | #2,647 |
| 1997 | under 5 | 12 | #5,279 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 17 | #4,014 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 15 | #4,273 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 10 | #5,860 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 12 | #4,995 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 7 | #7,411 | |
| 1991 | under 5 | 6 | #8,223 | |
| 1990 | under 5 | 10 | #5,372 | |
| 1989 | under 5 | 5 | #9,222 | |
| 1980 | under 5 | 6 | #6,241 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 5 | #5,038 |
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 Zen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,313 Americans recorded as Zen, 18% are girls and 82% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Zen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zen, and how old are they?
3,280 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,313 Americans ever recorded as Zen. The median Zen alive today is 7 years old; half are between 4 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 2,078 people named Zen (492 women and girls, 1,586 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,792 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% above 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 | 10 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 79 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 852 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,340 |
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 Zen born?
The states with the most babies named Zen are California, New York and Texas, with 45% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27 | #1,039 | 1.1× |
| New York | 26 | #715 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 22 | #1,249 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 17 | #886 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 14 | #709 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 10 | #683 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 9 | #935 | 0.6× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #763 | 0.5× |
| Maryland | 9 | #570 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 6 | #1,111 | 0.2× |
Where Zen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zen is most over-represented in California: since 1969 it was given 1.1 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 Zen 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 5,263 babies since 1880, Zen is the most given (63% of them). In 2025 it was given to 228 of their 289 babies (79%), 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 Zen
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 Zen and names like it
- Compare Zen and ZenonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZen peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zen since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Zen.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zen alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.