Zaira
An Arabic name meaning "flourishing, blossoming flower".
Name Census estimates that about 4,681 living Americans carry the first name Zaira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zaira today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zaira births was 2021 (220 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zaira. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Zaira with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Zaira is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 73,222 Americans
Peak year
2021
220 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,233
Tracked since 1969
Census
Zaira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,220 people with the first name Zaira, which placed it at #3,797 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,797
National first-name rank
People counted
5.2K
5,220 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zaira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zaira is Hispanic at 84.3%. The next largest groups are White (5.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Zaira described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Zaira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino84.3% · 4,403
- White5.7% · 295
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 265
- Black or African American3.5% · 183
- Two or more races1.2% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 10
Popularity
Zaira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zaira from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,393 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zaira remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zaira by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Zaira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zairas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Zaira, while Wisconsin, Oregon, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 141 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zaira
The name Zaira is of Arabic origin, derived from the Arabic word "zahrah," which means "flower" or "blossom." This name has been in use since ancient times in the Middle East and North Africa.
In Islamic tradition, the name Zaira is associated with beauty and grace. It is mentioned in some historical texts and records from the medieval era, particularly in regions that were part of the Islamic Golden Age, such as Persia and parts of the Middle East.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Zaira is found in the 9th century, when an Arab poetess named Zaira bint Al-Muqtadir lived during the Abbasid Caliphate. She was renowned for her poetic talents and was a member of the literary circles in Baghdad.
Another notable figure with the name Zaira was Zaira al-Alawiyya (1213-1292), a Sufi mystic and scholar from modern-day Morocco. She was a prominent figure in the Shadhili Sufi order and wrote several influential works on Sufism and Islamic spirituality.
In the 16th century, Zaira Fernandez de Otero (1520-1590) was a Spanish noblewoman and philanthropist known for her charitable works and support for the poor and underprivileged in her community.
Fast-forwarding to the 19th century, Zaira Polixena (1876-1962) was an Italian painter and illustrator who was active in the Art Nouveau movement. She is particularly known for her intricate and detailed illustrations of plants and flowers, reflecting the meaning of her name.
In more recent times, Zaira Wasim (born 1991) is an Indian actress who gained recognition for her performances in Bollywood films such as "Dangal" and "Secret Superstar." She received several awards and accolades for her acting abilities at a young age.
While the name Zaira has Arabic roots, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and regions over the centuries, with each culture adding its own unique interpretation and significance to the name.
People
Zaira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zaira as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zaira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zaira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,681 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zaira going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 73,222 US residents.
Is Zaira a common name?
We classify Zaira as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,760 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zaira most popular?
The single biggest year for Zaira was 2021, when 220 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zaira is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zaira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,220 people with the name Zaira, or 1.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,797 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Zaira in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Zaira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zaira appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,219 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Zaira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zaira is Hispanic at 84.3%. The next largest groups are White (5.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Zaira most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Zaira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (4,403 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Zaira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zaira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zaira in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Zaira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zaira in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Zaira can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Zaira?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Zaira at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.