Zaara
Feminine · “radiant”
Az-Zahra, the Radiant, is a title of Fatima, and it is also the name of a ruined city. Madinat az-Zahra, built outside Cordoba in the tenth century and destroyed within eighty years, was one of the great palace complexes of the medieval world, and its foundations are still being excavated.
How old is the name Zaara?
Zaara first appears in US birth records in 2004 — 21 years ago. The typical Zaara is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Zaara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zaara most popular?
Zaara peaked in 2005, reaching #3081 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 3,465 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From zahra to Zaara
The story of Zaara
The root z-h-r yields both light and flowers, which is why the same word can mean radiant and blossom; az-Zahra as a title of Fatima is generally read in the first sense. Abd al-Rahman III built Madinat az-Zahra outside Cordoba from 936 as the capital of his caliphate, and it was sacked in civil war within a lifetime; the site is now a major archaeological excavation and a World Heritage listing. The name Zahra is used across the Muslim world, and English-language spellings multiply: Zahra, Zara, Zaara, Zarah. Zaara's best year in United States records is 2005.
Meaningscholars disagree
radiant, brilliant, blooming
Arabic zahra means bright or radiant, and also a blossom, from a root covering brightness and flowering; az-Zahra is a traditional title of Fatima. A separate and unrelated Hebrew route gives Zara from Zerah, a name in Genesis meaning dawn or brightness. The doubled a of this spelling is an English convention for marking a long vowel and is not Arabic.
How the name formed
- zahra
- Zahra
- Zaara
Related forms: Zahra · Zahra · Zahra · Zara
Pronouncing Zaara
ZAH-rah
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The doubled a marks a long vowel in English terms; the Arabic Zahra has an h between the syllables that this spelling removes entirely.
Nicknames for Zaara
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 2004
- Most girls named
- 201152 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3081reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- −22.7%17 in 2025, from 22
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Zaara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zahra in Arabic — transliteration
- Zahra in Persian — same name
- Zahra in Urdu — same name
- Zara in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Michigan.
Zaaras among us
people named Zaara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Zaara
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zaara
- #6546
- Zaara on the 2025 chart
- #206
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zaara went to 17 girls in 2025, but Zara and Zarah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 1,607, which makes it the 206th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,340 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 1,000 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Zaara itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Moria test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zaara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Moria climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Moria's path sketches the road Zaara is walking now.
Zaara sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Zaara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zaara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Arabic meaning with a major title and a famous ruined city behind it.
- Zara is available as a short form and is independently popular.
- The Z opening makes it immediately distinctive.
- Zahra is the standard transliteration and keeps the Arabic h that this drops.
- Zara, Zahra, Zaara and Zarah all circulate and split the records.
- A large clothing retailer shares the shorter spelling.
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What they receive
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Zaara
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zaaras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Zaara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zaara?
- Zaara is one of 3 recorded spellings. Zara is the more common one — 1,432 births in 2025 against 17 for Zaara.
- How popular is the name Zaara in 2025?
- Zaara ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zaara?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Zaara — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zaara with classmates?
- Zaara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zaara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zaara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zaara and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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