Zinnia
Feminine · German roots · “The zinnia flower”
Zinnia is a flower name with a paper trail: the genus was named in the eighteenth century by Linnaeus for Johann Gottfried Zinn, a German botanist who grew the Mexican plant at Göttingen and died at thirty-two. So the name reaches English through a garden bed and a botanist's surname at once. It says its own sound out loud — three light syllables, a buzz at the front, the same soft ending Julia and Amelia carry.
How old is the name Zinnia?
Zinnia first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Zinnia is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,700 people named Zinnia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zinnia most popular?
Zinnia peaked in 2025, reaching #1285 nationally. Today it ranks #1285, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Zinnia appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Zinn (German surname) to Zinnia
The story of Zinnia
The plant is native to Mexico and the American southwest; seeds reached European gardens in the eighteenth century, and Johann Gottfried Zinn, a physician and botanist at Göttingen, grew and described it. Linnaeus then attached Zinn's name to the whole genus, which is why a Central American flower carries a German surname. Zinnia the given name follows the great Victorian and Edwardian fashion for botanical names, arriving alongside Dahlia and Marigold rather than out of any older naming tradition. It has appeared in US records ever since, thinly but without a break — and for a stretch of the mid-twentieth century the zinnia was Indiana's state flower.
Meaning
The zinnia flower — a genus named after the botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn
Two layers, both documented. As a name in use, Zinnia belongs with Dahlia, Violet and Lily: it means the flower. Behind the flower sits the German surname Zinn, the ordinary word for tin, since Linnaeus built the genus name from the man's name.
How the name formed
- ZinnGerman surname
- Zinniabotanical genus, named by Linnaeus
- ZinniaEnglish given name
Related forms: Zinnie · Zinnia · Zinia · Zynnia
Pronouncing Zinnia
ZIN-ee-uh
Stress on the first syllable, exactly like the flower. Nothing unexpected in it, though people meeting it in writing sometimes reach first for ZEEN-ee-uh.
Nicknames for Zinnia
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
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 2023177 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1285reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +1.8%174 in 2025, from 171
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.
Zinnia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zinnie in German — related form
- Zinnia in Italian — same name
- Zinia in Spanish — spelling variant
- Zynnia in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Zinnias among us
people named Zinnia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,237 born in 2025 was named Zinnia
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 Juliane test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zinnia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Juliane climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Juliane's path sketches the road Zinnia is walking now.
Zinnia is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Zinnia is headed
Zinnia 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.
Zinnia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zinnia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sits in a category Americans already know — Dahlia, Violet, Lily, Iris — so the kind of name it is registers instantly.
- The spelling follows the flower's own, which is in seed catalogs and garden centers everywhere; hearing it is usually enough to write it.
- Documented back to a named eighteenth-century botanist, so there is a real story behind it rather than a guess.
- Offers ready short forms — Zinnie, Zin, Nia — without needing to be shortened.
- Present in US records for over a century, so it is a rare name rather than a new one.
- The double n is the weak point. Zinia and Zenia will turn up on lists and forms, and the name will be spelled aloud fairly often.
- It is heard rarely enough that some people will reach for Xenia or Zenia instead, especially over the phone.
- Flower names are moving fast right now, and Zinnia is moving with them. A child born today may find the name far more familiar by the time she reaches high school than it is at the moment.
- Anyone who gardens will think of the flower first, every time — bright, unmissable, mid-summer. That is a pleasant association, but it is the whole association.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Zinnia to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Zinnia
Feminine · German roots · #1285 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zinnias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Zinnia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zinnia in 2025?
- Zinnia ranks #1285 among US girl names in 2025, with 174 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zinnia?
- About 1 in every 9,237 US girls born in 2025 was named Zinnia — 174 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zinnia with classmates?
- Zinnia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zinnia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carmella#1285 · Ryann#1285 · Rita#1285 · Micaela#1285 · Zahara#1285 · Lorena#1291 · Leela#1279 · Antonia#1279
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zinnia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zinnia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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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