Zaira
Feminine
Zaira is the Italian and Spanish shape of a name that reached Europe through the stage: Voltaire's tragedy *Zaïre* of 1732, and then Bellini's opera *Zaira*, first performed in Parma in 1829. It is two syllables that open wide and close soft, and it has been at home in Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the languages of the Caucasus for generations.
How old is the name Zaira?
Zaira first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Zaira alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 4,900 people named Zaira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zaira most popular?
Zaira peaked in 2025, reaching #1080 nationally. Today it ranks #1080, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Zaira appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Zahra to Zaira
The story of Zaira
Voltaire's *Zaïre*, staged in Paris in 1732, was one of the most performed tragedies of its century, and its heroine's name traveled with it — into Italian as Zaira, into Spanish as Zaira, kept there long after the play left the repertoire. Bellini set the story as an opera in 1829, which fixed the Italian spelling further. Alongside that literary road runs an older one: Arabic Zahra and Zahira, names of long standing, which Spanish ears heard and wrote as Zaira. Italo Calvino later gave the name to one of the remembered cities in *Invisible Cities*.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as "blossoming" or "shining", from Arabic zahra — though the trail runs through an eighteenth-century play, not a dictionary.
Two serious readings compete. One links Zaira to Arabic zahra / zāhira, "flower, blossoming, radiant" — the same root behind Zahra and Zahira, and the reason the name settled so easily in Spanish-speaking countries. The other treats it as a literary name: Voltaire gave his Jerusalem-set heroine the name Zaïre in 1732, and Italian and Spanish speakers reshaped it as Zaira afterwards, with no sure word behind it. Both accounts are held by serious people, and neither has won.
How the name formed
- Zahra
- Zaïre
- Zaira
Related forms: Zaira · Zaira · Zaïre · Zahra · Zahira · Заира
Pronouncing Zaira
ZY-rah
Two syllables, with the first rhyming with "sky" — the Spanish and Italian reading of the -ai-. Some American families use ZAIR-ah instead, rhyming the first part with "air". Both are heard, so it is worth deciding early which one you will correct people to.
Nicknames for Zaira
High
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
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 2025224 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1080reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%224 in 2025, from 192
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.
Zaira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zaira in Spanish — same name
- Zaira in Italian — same name
- Zaïre in French — related form
- Zahra in Arabic — related form
- Zahira in Arabic — related form
- Заира in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Zairas among us
people named Zaira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,175 born in 2025 was named Zaira
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zaira
- #1080
- Zaira on the 2025 chart
- #688
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zaira went to 224 girls in 2025, but Zayra and Zairah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 279, which makes it the 688th most-given girls’ name of the year — 392 places above the chart.
- Zaira224
- Zayra39
- Zairah16
About 1 girl in 5,761 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,175 for Zaira 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 Jacquelynn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zaira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacquelynn climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacquelynn's path sketches the road Zaira is walking now.
Zaira 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 Zaira is headed
Zaira should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Zaira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zaira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in Spanish, Italian and Russian, and sits beside Arabic Zahra and Zahira — useful in a family that spans more than one language.
- Five letters, no silent ones, and a spelling readers can copy after hearing it once.
- Belongs to a Z- pattern people already recognize from Zara, Zaria and Zoe, so it is familiar in shape while staying uncommon in itself.
- Has short forms already in use — Zai, Zaza — rather than needing one invented.
- Carries a documented literary and operatic record going back to the eighteenth century.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits: ZY-rah and ZAIR-ah are both in use in the US. Expect to answer that question often, and to hear the other one from teachers and receptionists.
- It sits very close to Zara, Zahra and Zaria, all of which are in circulation. Mail, spellings and roll calls will occasionally slide between them.
- It is climbing rather than settled, and rare enough that most people will not have met one — the upside is uniqueness, the cost is a lifetime of spelling it out cheerfully.
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What they receive
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Zaira
Feminine · #1080 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zairas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,900 people named Zaira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zaira?
- Zaira is the most-used spelling in US records — 224 of the 279 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Zayra and Zairah.
- How popular is the name Zaira in 2025?
- Zaira ranks #1080 among US girl names in 2025, with 224 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zaira?
- About 1 in every 7,175 US girls born in 2025 was named Zaira — 224 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zaira with classmates?
- Zaira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zaira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Braelyn#1080 · Carla#1082 · Malayah#1082 · Aira#1082 · Katelyn#1076 · Ann#1076 · Rubi#1076 · Nayla#1076
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zaira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zaira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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