Zamira
Feminine · “Two readings compete: "conscience”
Zamira is the feminine partner to Zamir, a name long used in Albania, Bosnia and across Central Asia — a form that travels comfortably from Tirana to Bishkek without changing its spelling. Three syllables, stress in the middle, and the familiar name Mira sitting inside it. In the United States it has been quietly present for decades and is climbing now rather than fading.
How old is the name Zamira?
Zamira first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Zamira is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,700 people named Zamira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zamira most popular?
Zamira peaked in 2025, reaching #1318 nationally. Today it ranks #1318, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Zamira appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From ḍamīr to Zamira
The story of Zamira
The root of the Balkan line is Arabic ḍamīr, "conscience" or "inner heart," which entered Albanian and Bosnian naming during the long Ottoman centuries and settled there as Zamir for boys, Zamira for girls. In the Soviet republics of Central Asia — Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Kazakh families in particular — Zamira became widespread in the twentieth century and was written in Cyrillic as Замира, which is why it now reaches English in a very stable spelling. A quite separate Hebrew name, zamir, "nightingale," produced the similar-looking Zemira. The name arrived in the United States with immigrant families and has spread beyond them since, showing up most strongly in the big-immigration states of the south and west.
Meaningscholars disagree
Two readings compete: "conscience, inner heart" and "song" or "nightingale"
The Balkan and Central Asian name Zamir, of which Zamira is the feminine, is generally traced to Arabic ḍamīr, "conscience, inner thought." A separate line runs through Hebrew zamir, "song" or "nightingale," which gives the names Zemira and Zemirah. Zamira is also treated in some families as a variant of Samira. All three are serious; none has crowded out the others.
How the name formed
- ḍamīr
- Zamir
- Zamira
Related forms: Zamira · Zamira · Замира · Zamira · Zamir · Zemira
Pronouncing Zamira
zuh-MEER-uh
Stress falls on the middle syllable. Albanian and Central Asian speakers often say it closer to zah-MEE-rah, with a fuller first vowel; both are correct and the name survives either way.
Nicknames for Zamira
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2025169 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1318reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +21.6%169 in 2025, from 139
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.
Zamira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zamira in Albanian — same name
- Zamira in Bosnian — same name
- Замира in Russian / Central Asian Cyrillic — transliteration
- Zamira in Uzbek — same name
- Zamir in Albanian (masculine) — related form
- Zemira in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Zamiras among us
people named Zamira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,510 born in 2025 was named Zamira
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zamira
- #1318
- Zamira on the 2025 chart
- #733
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zamira went to 169 girls in 2025, but Zamirah, Zamyra and Zamyrah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 229, which makes it the 733rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 585 places above the chart.
- Zamira169
- Zamirah39
- Zamyra13
- Zamyrah8
About 1 girl in 7,019 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,510 for Zamira 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 Analisa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zamira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Analisa climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Analisa's path sketches the road Zamira is walking now.
Zamira 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 Zamira is headed
Zamira looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% 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.
Zamira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zamira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English — one plausible reading of the letters, so it usually survives a first attempt.
- Contains Mira, an independent name, giving a ready short form that needs no explanation anywhere.
- Works unchanged in Albanian, Bosnian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Russian-speaking communities.
- Has a masculine counterpart, Zamir, already in use — useful in families naming across siblings.
- Present in US records for decades rather than newly coined, and currently gaining rather than receding.
- It sits close to Samira, Zamora and Zahira, so expect to correct the occasional mishearing over the phone or at a doctor's desk.
- A Zamira will very likely be the only one in her school, which some children enjoy and others find tiring in the early years of introducing themselves.
- The meaning is genuinely unsettled between the Arabic and Hebrew readings. If you want one clear answer to give her, you will have to choose which tradition you are naming from.
- The name is rising, so it will feel somewhat less unusual by the time she is grown than it does today.
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What they receive
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Zamira
Feminine · #1318 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zamiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Zamira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zamira?
- Zamira is the most-used spelling in US records — 169 of the 229 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Zamirah, Zamyra and Zamyrah.
- How popular is the name Zamira in 2025?
- Zamira ranks #1318 among US girl names in 2025, with 169 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zamira?
- About 1 in every 9,510 US girls born in 2025 was named Zamira — 169 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zamira with classmates?
- Zamira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zamira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ailyn#1318 · Miyori#1318 · Azul#1318 · Emberlyn#1318 · Jaylah#1318 · Liah#1318 · Rue#1318 · Cara#1326
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zamira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zamira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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