Zoraya
Feminine
Zoraya belongs to the Spain that was Muslim for eight centuries and to the stories told about it afterwards. A queen of Granada carried the name in legend, and Spanish literature kept it long after the kingdom fell; it is a name that Spanish inherited from Arabic and then made entirely its own.
How old is the name Zoraya?
Zoraya first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Zoraya alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 600 people named Zoraya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zoraya most popular?
Zoraya peaked in 1970, reaching #4761 nationally. Today it ranks #4878, 117 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Zoraida to Zoraya
The story of Zoraya
The last decades of Muslim Granada left a great deal of legend behind, and the woman remembered as Zoraya, a Christian captive who became the wife of a sultan, sits in the middle of it. Spanish writers used the name freely afterwards, and a Zoraida appears in Don Quixote, which fixed it in the literary language. It has been given in Spain, the Canaries, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic ever since, and it came to American records with families from those places.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The Arabic source is not settled. Thurayya, the Pleiades, is the reading most often given and is genuinely a name; a diminutive of zahra, a flower or something bright, has also been proposed. Spanish reshaped whatever it took, and the modern Zoraya and Zoraida cannot be traced cleanly to either.
How the name formed
- Zoraida
- Zoraya
Related forms: Zoraida · Thurayya · Zoraia
Pronouncing Zoraya
soh-RAH-yah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Latin American Spanish says the z as an s; Spain says it with a th sound at the front.
Nicknames for Zoraya
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 202527 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4761reached in 1970
- Change vs 2024
- +35.0%27 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.
Zoraya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zoraida in Spanish — related form
- Thurayya in Arabic — related form
- Zoraia in Portuguese — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Zorayas among us
people named Zoraya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 59,528 born in 2025 was named Zoraya
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 Allis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zoraya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Allis climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Allis's path sketches the road Zoraya is walking now.
Zoraya 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 Zoraya is headed
Zoraya should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Zoraya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zoraya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries a documented literary and historical setting, which is unusual for a name this uncommon.
- Zora works as a short form and is a complete name elsewhere.
- The rhythm is open and even, so English speakers say it correctly quickly.
- Its Arabic origin is genuinely unsettled, so meanings given for it online are guesses.
- Zoraida, Zoraya and Soraya are all in use and get written for one another.
- The z is said differently in Spain and Latin America, so the name has two versions.
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What they receive
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Zoraya
Feminine · #4878 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zorayas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Zoraya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zoraya in 2025?
- Zoraya ranks #4878 among US girl names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zoraya?
- About 1 in every 59,528 US girls born in 2025 was named Zoraya — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zoraya with classmates?
- Zoraya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zoraya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maribelle#4878 · Evangelia#4878 · Pari#4878 · Saba#4878 · Chyna#4878 · Odyssey#4878 · Kamry#4878 · Zana#4878
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zoraya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zoraya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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