Zillah
Feminine · “Hebrew "shade”
Zillah appears in the fourth chapter of Genesis, in the oldest genealogy in the Bible. She is one of the two wives of Lamech and the mother of Tubal-cain, the first worker in bronze and iron — which puts her at the origin of metallurgy in the text's own account of how the world was furnished.
How old is the name Zillah?
Zillah first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Zillah alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 300 people named Zillah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zillah most popular?
Zillah peaked in 1881, reaching #679 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 6,454 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From צִלָּה (Tsillah) to Zillah
The story of Zillah
Puritan and later evangelical naming reached deep into the Old Testament for names that mainstream Christianity had left alone, and Zillah is a good example: obscure, easily pronounced, and unmistakably scriptural. It was in real use in England and America through the nineteenth century, peaking in the American records in 1881 alongside Keziah, Jemima, Adah and Selah. That whole cohort faded together after 1900 and several of them — Selah, Adah, Keziah — have returned in the last decade, which is the context for any modern Zillah.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew "shade, shadow"
The usual derivation is from Hebrew tsel, shade or shadow, giving tsillah. A competing reading connects it to a root meaning to tinkle or ring, which would make it a musical name — attractive, given that her husband's other son Jubal is called the father of all who play the harp and pipe. Both readings have support and neither is settled.
How the name formed
- צִלָּהTsillah
- Zillah
Related forms: צִלָּה · Σελλα
Pronouncing Zillah
ZIL-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the final h silent. The Hebrew has an emphatic first consonant that English renders as Z and stresses the second syllable, tsil-LAH, but the English tradition is firmly ZIL-uh.
Nicknames for Zillah
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
- 202420 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #679reached in 1881
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%15 in 2025, from 20
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.
Zillah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- צִלָּה in Hebrew — same name
- Σελλα in Greek (Septuagint) — transliteration
Zillahs among us
people named Zillah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Zillah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zillah
- #7133
- Zillah on the 2025 chart
- #549
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zillah went to 15 girls in 2025, but Zyla, Zylah and Zilah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 453, which makes it the 549th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,584 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,548 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 107,151 for Zillah 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
Fashion outlook
Zillah 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
Zillah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zillah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is genuinely biblical, with a named place in the earliest genealogy in Genesis.
- It is short, two syllables, and impossible to mispronounce in English.
- It belongs to a cohort of Old Testament women's names currently returning.
- Dropping the h produces a word most people associate with a monster film.
- The meaning is genuinely disputed between shade and sound.
- The 1880s peak makes it a revival rather than a current name.
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Zillah
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zillahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Zillah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zillah?
- Zillah is one of 7 recorded spellings. Zyla is the more common one — 271 births in 2025 against 15 for Zillah.
- How popular is the name Zillah in 2025?
- Zillah ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zillah?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Zillah — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zillah with classmates?
- Zillah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zillah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zillah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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