Zakiyah
Feminine · “pure”
Zakiyah is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,035 girls against 7 boys since 1880.
Zakiyah is an Arabic word for purity of a particular kind — the cleanness that comes from growth and increase rather than from washing. The root covers both at once.
How old is the name Zakiyah?
Zakiyah first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Zakiyah alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 2,000 people named Zakiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zakiyah most popular?
Zakiyah peaked in 2008, reaching #1949 nationally. Today it ranks #3712, 1,763 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From zakiyya to Zakiyah
The story of Zakiyah
The root z-k-w joins purity to growth in a way English does not, and zakat — the alms that are one of the five pillars — is named from it because giving is understood to purify what remains. Zakiyya is the feminine adjective and has been a women's name across the Arab world for a long time. It reaches American records with Arab and South Asian families and separately with African-American Muslim families.
Meaning
pure, virtuous
From an Arabic root meaning to be pure and to grow or increase; the same root gives zakat, the obligatory charitable giving, which is understood as purifying wealth by increasing what is shared.
How the name formed
- zakiyya
- Zakiyah
Related forms: Zakiyya · Zakia · Zekiye
Pronouncing Zakiyah
zah-KEE-yah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Zakiyah
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
- 1976
- Most girls named
- 2008108 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1949reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −9.1%40 in 2025, from 44
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.
Zakiyah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zakiyya in Arabic — transliteration
- Zakia in Urdu — spelling variant
- Zekiye in Turkish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Illinois.
Zakiyahs among us
people named Zakiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 40,182 born in 2025 was named Zakiyah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zakiyah
- #3712
- Zakiyah on the 2025 chart
- #866
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zakiyah went to 40 girls in 2025, but Zakiya, Zakia and Zakiah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 94, which makes it the 866th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,846 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 17,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 40,182 for Zakiyah 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 Rosiland test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zakiyah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rosiland climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rosiland's path sketches the road Zakiyah is walking now.
Zakiyah 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
Where Zakiyah is headed
Zakiyah 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.
Zakiyah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zakiyah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a genuinely interesting connection between purity and growth.
- Zaki is a complete Arabic name in its own right.
- It begins with Z, which keeps it distinct on any list.
- Zakia, Zakiyya and Zakiyah are all in use and relatives may prefer different ones.
- A name meaning pure is a particular thing to hand a child.
- It is close to Zakiya and Zakariah in an American ear.
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What they receive
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Zakiyah
Feminine · #3712 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zakiyahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Zakiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zakiyah?
- Zakiyah is the most-used spelling in US records — 40 of the 94 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Zakiya, Zakia and Zakiah.
- How popular is the name Zakiyah in 2025?
- Zakiyah ranks #3712 among US girl names in 2025, with 40 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zakiyah?
- About 1 in every 40,182 US girls born in 2025 was named Zakiyah — 40 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zakiyah with classmates?
- Zakiyah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zakiyah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zakiyah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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