Zuleyma
Feminine · “Peace”
Zuleyma comes to Spanish through the long Arabic presence in Iberia: Sulaymā is the feminine of Sulayman, which is Solomon, which is peace. Eight hundred years of Al-Andalus left Spanish a stock of names, and this is one of them.
How old is the name Zuleyma?
Zuleyma first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Zuleyma alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 900 people named Zuleyma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zuleyma most popular?
Zuleyma peaked in 1990, reaching #2464 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 3,090 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Šĕlōmōh to Zuleyma
The story of Zuleyma
Arabic names entered Spanish in quantity during the eight centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia and stayed after it, particularly in the south; Spanish keeps hundreds of Arabic words and a smaller number of names. Zulema and its variants belong to that inheritance and have been used in Spain and throughout Latin America. Zuleyma is chiefly a Mexican and Central American spelling, and its American record follows those families, with a peak in 1990. The name is separately used in the Arab world in its own form, and the two streams do not meet in American data.
Meaning
Peace
From Arabic Sulaymā, a feminine formed on Sulaymān, the Arabic form of Hebrew Šĕlōmōh, from šālôm, peace. The reading is settled through the chain. Spanish gives Zulema, Zulaima and Zuleyma; the initial z reflects the Spanish treatment of the Arabic s in this position, and the y is a Latin American spelling choice.
How the name formed
- Šĕlōmōh
- Sulaymān
- Sulaymā
- Zuleyma
Related forms: سليمى · Zulema · Zulaima · Zulmira
Pronouncing Zuleyma
soo-LAY-mah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Latin American Spanish says the z as an s; Castilian would give it a th. English readers see a z and say ZOO-lay-muh.
Nicknames for Zuleyma
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
- 1984
- Most girls named
- 199049 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2464reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- +10.0%22 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.
Zuleyma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- سليمى in Arabic — related form
- Zulema in Spanish — spelling variant
- Zulaima in Spanish — spelling variant
- Zulmira in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Zuleymas among us
people named Zuleyma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Zuleyma
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zuleyma
- #5554
- Zuleyma on the 2025 chart
- #922
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zuleyma went to 22 girls in 2025, but Zuleima is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 38, which makes it the 922nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,632 places above the chart.
- Zuleyma22
- Zuleima16
About 1 girl in 42,297 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 73,058 for Zuleyma 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
The Loralie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zuleyma's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Loralie climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Loralie's path sketches the road Zuleyma is walking now.
Zuleyma 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
Zuleyma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zuleyma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and about as good as a meaning gets.
- Zuly works as a warm short form.
- It carries a genuine and interesting piece of Spanish history.
- English readers will pronounce the z as an English z.
- Zulema, Zuleyma, Zulaima and Zuleima are four spellings of one name.
- It is unfamiliar outside Spanish-speaking communities.
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What they receive
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Zuleyma
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zuleymas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Zuleyma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zuleyma?
- Zuleyma is the most-used spelling in US records — 22 of the 38 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Zuleima.
- How popular is the name Zuleyma in 2025?
- Zuleyma ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zuleyma?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Zuleyma — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zuleyma with classmates?
- Zuleyma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zuleyma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zuleyma? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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