Zara
Feminine · “blossom”
Zara has been quietly on the American books since the late nineteenth century, long before its recent rise, and it arrives in English from more than one direction — Arabic, Hebrew scripture in Latin translation, and the London stage. Two syllables, five letters, an open vowel at each end: it is the kind of name that needs no explaining twice at a school gate, in Britain or in the States.
How old is the name Zara?
Zara first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Zara is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 20,500 people named Zara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zara most popular?
Zara peaked in 2022, reaching #201 nationally. Today it ranks #212, 11 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Zara appears on these lists:
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- The steadiest names in America
- Names with a Z in them
- Arabic names in American use
- African names with radiant meanings
- Names ending in -ra
- all guides
Works in Arabic families too:
Where it comes from
From Zahrah to Zara
The story of Zara
The Arabic line is the deepest and widest: Zahra and Zahrah have been given for centuries from Morocco to Indonesia, and the form Zehra is standard in Turkish and Bosnian. Separately, Latin and early English Bibles rendered the Hebrew name Zerah as Zara, which is how the spelling first became readable to European eyes. It reached the English stage in 1697, when William Congreve gave the name to the captive queen in his tragedy The Mourning Bride, and it circulated in English drama and fiction through the eighteenth century. Modern British use got a considerable push when a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II was named Zara in 1981 — she later became an Olympic silver-medal equestrian — and the name has charted in Scotland and in England and Wales ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
"blossom, flowering" or "radiant" (Arabic); "dawning, rising" (Hebrew)
Two serious roads meet at this spelling. One runs from Arabic zahrah, "flower, blossom," and the related Zahra, "radiant, bright" — long established across the Arabic-speaking world, Turkey and Bosnia. The other runs from Hebrew Zerah, "dawning" or "rising," which appears as Zara in the Latin Vulgate and the English translations that followed it. A third strand treats Zara simply as a variant of Sarah, "lady, princess." None of these cancels the others out; the name genuinely carries all three histories.
Cultural footprint
Zara Larsson (b. 1997) — Swedish pop star ("Lush Life")
Zara Tindall (b. 1981) — British royal and Olympic silver-medal equestrian
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Zahrah
- Zahra
- Zara
Related forms: Zahra · Zehra · Zehra · Zaira · Zahra · Zahara
Pronouncing Zara
ZAR-ah
Two pronunciations circulate in the US: ZAR-ah, with the vowel of "car," and ZAIR-ah, with the vowel of "air." The first is closer to the Arabic and the usual British reading; both are accepted, so it is worth deciding which one you want and saying it clearly at introductions.
Nicknames for Zara
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
- 1896
- Most girls named
- 20251,432 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #201reached in 2022
- Change vs 2023
- +11.4%1,432 in 2025, from 1,285
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.
Zara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zahra in Arabic — related form
- Zehra in Turkish — related form
- Zehra in Bosnian — related form
- Zaira in Italian — related form
- Zahra in Persian / Urdu — transliteration
- Zahara in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Zaras among us
people named Zara are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,122 born in 2025 was named Zara
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zara
- #212
- Zara on the 2025 chart
- #206
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zara went to 1,432 girls in 2025, but Zarah and Zaara 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 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 1,122 for Zara 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 Leigh test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zara's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leigh climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leigh's path sketches the road Zara is walking now.
Zara 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 Zara is headed
Zara should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Zara beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zara in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and instantly spellable — five letters that almost no English speaker will need repeated.
- At home in Arabic, Turkish, Bosnian and English-speaking countries alike, which travels well across a mixed family.
- A documented record in English going back to the seventeenth-century stage and to Latin Bible translation, alongside centuries of Arabic use.
- Established informal forms (Zaza, Z) without needing one — the full name is already conversational.
- Zara is also one of the world's largest clothing retailers, and most adults will think of the shop first. In practice this fades fast for the child, but expect the association to be mentioned.
- The ZAR-ah versus ZAIR-ah split means occasional correcting for life, in both directions.
- It sits close to Zahra, Zora, Zaria, Zaire and Sara, so misheard spellings on forms are likely.
- The name's American wave is recent, so most Zaras here are children — perfectly ordinary in a classroom, less so among adults, for now.
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What they receive
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Zara
Feminine · #212 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zaras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 20,500 people named Zara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zara?
- Zara is the most-used spelling in US records — 1,432 of the 1,607 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Zarah and Zaara.
- How popular is the name Zara in 2025?
- Zara ranks #212 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,432 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zara?
- About 1 in every 1,122 US girls born in 2025 was named Zara — 1,432 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zara with classmates?
- Zara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zara
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Arabella#213 · Aitana#211 · Myla#210 · Lennon#214 · Dahlia#215 · Adaline#208 · Bailey#208 · Selah#216
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zara and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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