Zhen
Zhen was given to 6 boys in 2025, #11,989 among boys’ names; 116 Americans have been recorded with it since 1995 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zhen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Zhen?
#11,989 among boys’ names, 2025
Zhen entered the boys’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #11,989 in 2025.
21 babies in 2023, the peak
Zhen peaked in 2023, when 21 boys were given it, #4,880 among boys’ names. The 6 births of 2025 are 29% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 6 | #11,989 | |
| 2024 | 7 | #13,457 | 6 | #12,331 |
| 2023 | under 5 | 21 | #4,880 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 7 | #10,846 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 5 | #14,080 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 10 | #8,055 | |
| 2018 | 5 | #18,113 | 5 | #14,088 |
| 2017 | 5 | #18,413 | 6 | #12,232 |
| 2016 | 5 | #18,847 | under 5 | |
| 2014 | under 5 | 6 | #12,091 |
Every recorded year (14)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | under 5 | 5 | #14,045 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 5 | #14,514 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 7 | #10,135 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 5 | #10,320 |
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 Zhen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 116 Americans recorded as Zhen, 19% are girls and 81% boys. In 2025 it went to 6 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Zhen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zhen, and how old are they?
An estimated 115 Americans named Zhen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 10. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 4,065 people named Zhen (1,807 women and girls, 2,258 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 56 born in the U.S. The Census count is 72.6 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 3,987 babies since 1880, Zhen is the third most given (2.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6 of their 274 babies (2.2%), the fourth 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 Zhen
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 Zhen and names like it
- Compare Zhen and ZenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZhen peaked in 2023.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zhen since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Zhen.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zhen alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.