Zenobia
Feminine · “life of Zeus”
The queen of Palmyra who took Egypt from Rome was not called Zenobia at home. Her Palmyrene name was Bat-Zabbai, in the Aramaic her city spoke; Zenobia is the Greek version she put on her coins and her inscriptions, because Greek was the language of power in the eastern Mediterranean and she intended to be understood.
How old is the name Zenobia?
Zenobia first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Zenobia alive today was born around 1959, making them about 66 years old. About 2,900 people named Zenobia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zenobia most popular?
Zenobia peaked in 1909, reaching #669 nationally. Today it ranks #6325, 5,656 places below that high. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Bat-Zabbai to Zenobia
The story of Zenobia
Zenobia ruled Palmyra from around 267, expanded into Egypt and Anatolia, declared her son emperor, and was defeated by Aurelian in 272; Roman writers who despised her also could not stop describing her, which is why she survived in the Western imagination when most third-century rulers did not. Her name spread through Byzantine and then European reading of the classical historians, and it appears sporadically in English from the seventeenth century. American use is a nineteenth-century classical-revival phenomenon, sitting alongside Cordelia, Clarinda and Octavia, and it reached its best year in 1909. It has been rare ever since, and remains one of the few names in English carried by a woman who commanded an army.
Meaningscholars disagree
life of Zeus
As a Greek name Zenobia is transparently Zeno-, from Zeus, plus bios, life, giving life of Zeus, and that is what a Greek reader would have seen. But the Palmyrene queen's own name, Bat-Zabbai, is Aramaic for daughter of Zabbai, and Zenobia may have been chosen to sound like it rather than to translate it. The Greek meaning is secure; whether it is the real meaning of this particular woman's name is not.
How the name formed
- Bat-Zabbai
- Zenobia
- Zenobia
Related forms: Zenobia · Zenobia · Zaynab · Zenobia
Pronouncing Zenobia
zeh-NOH-bee-uh
Four syllables with the stress on the second. Spanish speakers say seh-NO-bee-ah, and the Greek original puts the weight in the same place.
Nicknames for Zenobia
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 192560 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #669reached in 1909
- Change vs 2022
- −45.5%18 in 2025, from 33
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.
Zenobia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zenobia in Greek — same name
- Zenobia in Spanish — same name
- Zaynab in Arabic — related form
- Zenobia in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Georgia.
Zenobias among us
people named Zenobia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 89,293 born in 2025 was named Zenobia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Zenobia 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
Zenobia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zenobia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Carried by a documented third-century ruler who fought Rome and nearly won.
- A settled Greek meaning that can be given in three words.
- Long enough to yield several very different short forms.
- Four syllables and an unfamiliar shape mean it will be repeated and spelled constantly.
- It reads as a nineteenth-century classical revival name, because that is its American period.
- The queen's own Aramaic name was different, which matters if the point is to honor her.
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Zenobia
Feminine · #6325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zenobias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Zenobia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zenobia in 2025?
- Zenobia ranks #6325 among US girl names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zenobia?
- About 1 in every 89,293 US girls born in 2025 was named Zenobia — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zenobia with classmates?
- Zenobia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zenobia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaye#6325 · Doria#6325 · Karolyn#6325 · Rosaleen#6325 · Roni#6325 · Darian#6325 · Svetlana#6325 · Fanny#6325
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zenobia? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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