Zeena
Feminine · “Adornment”
Zeena is a spelling that serves several names at once. In Arabic zīna is adornment or beauty; in Greek it is a short form of Zenobia; in English it is the phonetic version of Xena, which a television series made famous in the 1990s. Its American peak, in 2022, is very recent.
How old is the name Zeena?
Zeena first appears in US birth records in 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Zeena alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 600 people named Zeena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zeena most popular?
Zeena peaked in 2022, reaching #4041 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 1,197 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From zīna to Zeena
Our story of Zeena
Four letters and a doubled vowel can carry a great deal. The Arabic Zina has been an ordinary women's name for centuries and arrived in American records with Arab and, separately, Russian and Central Asian Muslim families. Zenobia ruled Palmyra against Rome in the 270s and gave English-speaking families a classical name that was clipped to Zeena and Zena. And Xena: Warrior Princess ran from 1995 to 2001 and put the sound in front of a very large audience that had never met either of the older names. The spelling Zeena sits in the middle of all of it, phonetic and unattached, and its rise to a peak in 2022 suggests a fourth thing — the general contemporary appetite for names beginning in Z, which English uses so sparingly that any Z at the front reads as deliberate.
Meaningscholars disagree
Adornment, beauty, if Arabic
Arabic zīna, from zayyana, to adorn, means ornament or beauty, and gives the established names Zina and Zeena — a settled reading for that name. Separately, Zeena serves as a phonetic spelling of Xena, itself from Greek xenē, foreign or guest, and as a short form of Zenobia, the Palmyrene queen, whose name is of Aramaic and Greek derivation. The spelling does not distinguish between these.
How the name formed
- zīna
- Zina
- Zeena
Related forms: زينة · Зина · Zenobia · Xena
Pronouncing Zeena
ZEE-nah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long ee. Arabic zīna is close to the same, with a lighter final vowel; the doubled e is an English spelling device, not an Arabic one.
Nicknames for Zeena
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
- 1922
- Most girls named
- 202236 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4041reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%24 in 2025, from 24
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.
Zeena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- زينة in Arabic — related form
- Зина in Russian — related form
- Zenobia in Greek — related form
- Xena in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Zeenas among us
people named Zeena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Zeena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zeena
- #5238
- Zeena on the 2025 chart
- #845
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zeena went to 24 girls in 2025, but Zena, Zenna and Zenah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 115, which makes it the 845th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,393 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 13,976 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Zeena 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 Trenice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zeena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Trenice climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Trenice's path sketches the road Zeena is walking now.
Zeena 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
Zeena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zeena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Arabic reading is settled and unusually pretty — adornment.
- The doubled e removes any doubt about the first vowel.
- Zee works as an immediate short form.
- Zina, Zena, Xena and Zeena are four spellings across three unrelated sources.
- The meaning depends entirely on which source a family had in mind.
- The Xena association is strong for anyone who watched television in the 1990s.
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What they receive
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Zeena
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zeenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Zeena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zeena?
- Zeena is one of 4 recorded spellings. Zena is the more common one — 73 births in 2025 against 24 for Zeena.
- How popular is the name Zeena in 2025?
- Zeena ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zeena?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Zeena — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zeena with classmates?
- Zeena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zeena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zeena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zeena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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