Zendaya
Feminine
Zendaya is one of the rare names whose whole American history can be watched from the beginning: it was a family coinage before it was a name on any list, built by one Oakland couple around the Shona word for thanks, and it reached the rest of the country when their daughter did. It moves in three easy beats with the stress in the middle, and the opening Z gives it a start almost no other girl's name has.
How old is the name Zendaya?
Zendaya first appears in US birth records in 2011 — 14 years ago. The typical Zendaya is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,900 people named Zendaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zendaya most popular?
Zendaya peaked in 2022, reaching #678 nationally. Today it ranks #1186, 508 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Where it comes from
From Tendai to Zendaya
The story of Zendaya
The name belongs to a single family before it belongs to anyone else. Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman was born in Oakland, California, in the mid-1990s, and her parents built her first name from Tendai or Tendayi, a Shona name from Zimbabwe meaning "to give thanks", with a Z at the front. It sat outside the American record entirely until her television and film career made it audible to millions, at which point other parents began giving it to their daughters — a name that traveled from one household to a whole country in a single generation, which is something very few names can be watched doing.
Meaningscholars disagree
linked to the Shona word for "to give thanks"
The account given by the actress Zendaya Coleman's family traces the name to the Shona name Tendai or Tendayi, from a verb meaning "to give thanks" or "be thankful", reshaped with an initial Z. That line is consistently reported but not independently attested: Zendaya itself does not appear as a traditional Shona name, so it is best read as an American creation built on a Shona root rather than a name with its own long record.
How the name formed
- Tendai
- Tendayi
- Zendaya
Related forms: Tendai · Tendayi
Pronouncing Zendaya
zen-DAY-uh
Three syllables, stress on the middle one. Because most Americans have heard the name spoken before they see it written, it is one of the few unusual spellings that rarely needs explaining out loud.
Nicknames for Zendaya
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
- 2011
- Most girls named
- 2022430 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #678reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −30.6%195 in 2025, from 281
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.
Zendaya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tendai in Shona — related form
- Tendayi in Shona — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, California.
Zendayas among us
people named Zendaya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,242 born in 2025 was named Zendaya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Odalys test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zendaya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Odalys climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Odalys's path sketches the road Zendaya is walking now.
Zendaya 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 Zendaya is headed
Zendaya 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.
Zendaya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zendaya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Almost everyone has heard it said before they read it, so pronunciation and spelling usually need no correcting.
- Spells the way it sounds in English — no silent letters, no competing versions in wide use.
- Offers several ready short forms, including Zen and Daya, the second of which works as a full name on its own.
- Rare enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate, in any state.
- For now the name points to one person. A child will be asked about her constantly, and whatever happens to that career over the next few decades will color the name — which is a real cost of being early to a name with a single famous source.
- It has no history before the mid-1990s, so it reads clearly as a name of this era rather than a family or heirloom choice. That may be exactly what you want, or not.
- Because it entered use so recently, nearly everyone carrying it is a child. It will take a generation before the name sounds equally natural on an adult, and this generation is the one doing that work.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Zendaya to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Zendaya
Feminine · #1186 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zendayas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,900 people named Zendaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zendaya in 2025?
- Zendaya ranks #1186 among US girl names in 2025, with 195 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zendaya?
- About 1 in every 8,242 US girls born in 2025 was named Zendaya — 195 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zendaya with classmates?
- Zendaya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zendaya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Amarah#1186 · Evangelina#1186 · Liberty#1186 · Yasmine#1183 · Violetta#1183 · Brynley#1183 · Keily#1190 · Kaisley#1190
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zendaya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zendaya and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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