Zahir
Masculine · Arabic roots · “manifest”
Zahir is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,777 boys against 7 girls since 1880.
Zahir arrives in English from Arabic script, where two very old words fall together into one Latin spelling — one meaning manifest or evident, the other shining or in bloom. It is a name with weight in Islamic tradition, a name carried by medieval rulers as a title of honor, and a name that gave Jorge Luis Borges the title of a 1949 short story and Paulo Coelho a 2005 novel. In the mouth it is two clean syllables with the stress falling on the second: a rising sound rather than a settling one.
How old is the name Zahir?
Zahir first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Zahir is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,700 people named Zahir are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zahir most popular?
Zahir peaked in 2025, reaching #738 nationally. Today it ranks #738, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Zahir appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From in inhir / inz inhir (Arabic) to Zahir
The story of Zahir
The name belongs first to Arabic, where it has been in continuous use for well over a millennium in both of its senses. Medieval rulers took al-Zahir as a regnal title — the Fatimid caliph az-Zahir governed from Cairo in the eleventh century, and later Mamluk sultans used the same honorific. From Arabic it spread with Islam into Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Malay and Bosnian, picking up a different spelling in each script and each transliteration system. In the United States it has been on record since the early 1970s, arriving with families from across that whole span of the Muslim world and, more recently, with parents drawn simply to the sound.
Meaningscholars disagree
"manifest, evident" — or "shining, blossoming"
Latin letters hide a distinction that Arabic keeps. inted from the root inz-h-r, inz inhir means shining, radiant, in blossom — the same root behind zahra, flower. From the root in inz-h-r with the emphatic letter, in inhir means manifest, apparent, outward, evident; al- inhir, The Manifest, is one of the names of God in Islamic tradition. Both are real names in Arabic, and both are written Zahir in English, so families choose which one they mean.
How the name formed
- in inhir / inz inhirArabic
- al- in inhirtitle of honor
- ZaheerUrdu
- Zahir
Related forms: ind ine ini inb / inz inb ine ini inb · Zaheer · Zaher · Zahir · Zahir · Zahir
Pronouncing Zahir
zah-HEER
Stress on the second syllable. English speakers also say zuh-HEER, and both pass without comment. The Arabic version of the "manifest" name begins with an emphatic consonant that has no English equivalent, so a plain z is the normal substitute here.
Nicknames for Zahir
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
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 2025356 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #738reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +4.4%356 in 2025, from 341
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.
Zahir in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- ind ine ini inb / inz inb ine ini inb in Arabic — same name
- Zaheer in Urdu — transliteration
- Zaher in Persian / Dari — transliteration
- Zahir in Turkish — same name
- Zahir in Bosnian — same name
- Zahir in Malay / Indonesian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, California.
Zahirs among us
people named Zahir are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,798 born in 2025 was named Zahir
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Arlyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zahir's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Arlyn climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Arlyn's path sketches the road Zahir is walking now.
Zahir is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Zahir is headed
Zahir looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 18% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Zahir beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zahir in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English: five letters, no silent ones, and no obvious trap for a reader meeting it cold.
- Recognized without explanation across Arabic-, Urdu-, Turkish-, Malay- and Bosnian-speaking communities.
- Over a thousand years of continuous documented use, including as a title of honor for medieval rulers in Cairo.
- Two established meanings to choose between, both attested in classical Arabic.
- Short enough to need no nickname, with Zee available if one is wanted.
- Transliteration means variants. Zaheer, Zaher and Zahyr all exist for the same name, so expect to spell it out and to be asked which one you meant.
- The stress trips some English speakers, who reach for ZAY-her or ZAH-hir on a first look. One correction usually fixes it, but there will be first looks.
- He is unlikely to meet another Zahir at school. That means no last-initial problem, and also that he will be the one introducing the name to most rooms he enters.
- If the "manifest" reading matters to you religiously, know that many people will hear the "shining, blossoming" one instead — the English spelling does not distinguish them.
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What they receive
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Zahir
Masculine · Arabic roots · #738 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zahirs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,700 people named Zahir are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zahir in 2025?
- Zahir ranks #738 among US boy names in 2025, with 356 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zahir?
- About 1 in every 4,798 US boys born in 2025 was named Zahir — 356 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zahir with classmates?
- Zahir will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zahir
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rudy#739 · Huxley#736 · Yehuda#740 · Mylo#736 · Bruno#740 · Ambrose#735 · Abram#742 · Clyde#742
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zahir? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zahir and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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