Zilla
Zilla was last recorded in 1951, when 7 babies were given it; 288 Americans have been recorded with it between 1882 and 1951 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zilla by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zilla mean?
Wiktionary, Italian section
Zilla is “a female given name” Its etymology gives the sense “shade” (צִלָּה).
From Biblical Hebrew צִלָּה (“shade”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, Italian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zilla?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #4,830, in 1951; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1918, the peak
Zilla peaked in 1918, when 14 girls were given it, #2,516 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 7 | #4,830 | 3.9 |
| 1945 | 5 | #5,239 | 3.8 |
| 1943 | 6 | #4,688 | 4.3 |
| 1935 | 11 | #2,727 | 10.5 |
| 1934 | 7 | #3,799 | 6.7 |
| 1930 | 7 | #4,042 | 6.2 |
| 1929 | 10 | #3,134 | 9.0 |
| 1928 | 8 | #3,740 | 6.9 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,799 | 5.0 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,847 | 5.1 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | 13 | #2,775 | 10.7 |
| 1924 | 9 | #3,662 | 7.2 |
| 1923 | 7 | #4,373 | 5.8 |
| 1922 | 8 | #4,007 | 6.7 |
| 1921 | 11 | #3,160 | 8.9 |
| 1920 | 7 | #4,394 | 5.8 |
| 1918 | 14 | #2,516 | 12.1 |
| 1917 | 5 | #5,304 | 4.6 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,549 | 7.7 |
| 1915 | 9 | #3,130 | 9.1 |
| 1914 | 10 | #2,431 | 13.1 |
| 1913 | 9 | #2,329 | 14.4 |
| 1912 | 8 | #2,358 | 14.3 |
| 1907 | 5 | #2,395 | 15.7 |
| 1905 | 7 | #1,694 | 24.0 |
| 1903 | 7 | #1,590 | 26.7 |
| 1901 | 8 | #1,338 | 33.4 |
| 1899 | 5 | #1,840 | 21.5 |
| 1898 | 8 | #1,377 | 30.9 |
| 1897 | 6 | #1,551 | 25.6 |
| 1895 | 10 | #1,121 | 42.8 |
| 1894 | 9 | #1,135 | 40.4 |
| 1892 | 6 | #1,448 | 28.3 |
| 1890 | 8 | #1,096 | 42.0 |
| 1888 | 7 | #1,135 | 39.2 |
| 1886 | 6 | #1,107 | 41.5 |
| 1882 | 5 | #1,028 | 46.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zilla a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zilla has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 37 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zilla: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zilla, and how old are they?
An estimated 18 Americans named Zilla and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 146 people named Zilla (142 women and girls, 4 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 32 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.6 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 3,721 babies since 1880, Zilla is the third most given (7.7% of them). In 2025 none of their 300 babies recorded by SSA was a Zilla (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Zilla
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 Zilla and names like it
- Compare Zilla and ZylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sZilla peaked in 1918.
- Italian namesWiktionary’s origin for Zilla: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Zilla.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.