Zoltan
Masculine
Zoltán is one of Hungary's founding names. It belonged to a son of Árpád, the chieftain who led the Magyars into the Carpathian basin, and it has stayed thoroughly Hungarian ever since — a name that says where a family comes from before it says anything else. The accent it carries at home marks a long vowel, not an emphasis, which is the thing everyone gets wrong about Hungarian.
How old is the name Zoltan?
Zoltan first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Zoltan alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 700 people named Zoltan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zoltan most popular?
Zoltan peaked in 1967, reaching #1540 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 10,468 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Zolta to Zoltan
The story of Zoltan
Árpád led the Magyar tribes into the plain that became Hungary at the end of the ninth century, and his son Zolta succeeded him. The name became one of the small set that Hungarians reach for when they want something unmistakably national — alongside Attila, Béla, Csaba and Árpád itself — and it has been given steadily for over a thousand years. American records carry it with Hungarian migration, which was heaviest around the turn of the twentieth century and again after the failed uprising in 1956, and the name's American shape reflects both waves.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Two accounts compete. One derives the name from a Turkic title of rulership, related to the word that gives English sultan — plausible, since the early Magyars had extensive Turkic contact and borrowed heavily. The other treats it simply as the personal name of Árpád's son, of unrecoverable origin. Neither has been settled, and Hungarian scholarship has argued about it for a century.
How the name formed
- Zolta
- Zoltán
- Zoltan
Related forms: Zoltán · Zoltán · Zoltan
Pronouncing Zoltan
ZOL-tahn
Two syllables, stress on the first — Hungarian always stresses the first syllable of a word, without exception. The acute accent on the second vowel marks length rather than emphasis, which is why Americans reading it as zol-TAHN are putting the weight in the wrong place.
Nicknames for Zoltan
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 196024 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1540reached in 1967
- Change vs 2023
- −50.0%5 in 2025, from 10
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.
Zoltan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zoltán in Hungarian — same name
- Zoltán in Slovak — same name
- Zoltan in Romanian — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania.
Zoltans among us
people named Zoltan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Zoltan
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 Marcial test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zoltan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marcial climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcial's path sketches the road Zoltan is walking now.
Zoltan 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
Zoltan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zoltan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a national name in Hungary with a documented thousand-year history.
- Zoli is a genuine and warm familiar form used by real people.
- Six letters and two syllables, with no sound English lacks.
- It is unmistakable — a child will almost certainly never meet another.
- Americans put the stress on the second syllable, and correcting that is a permanent task.
- The accent will not survive American forms, and without it the name looks like a different word to Hungarian eyes.
- It is strongly marked as Hungarian, which is a fact to weigh rather than a fault.
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What they receive
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Zoltan
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zoltans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Zoltan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zoltan in 2025?
- Zoltan ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zoltan?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Zoltan — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zoltan with classmates?
- Zoltan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zoltan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zoltan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zoltan 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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