Zelig
A Yiddish-derived masculine given name meaning "blessed" or "prosperous".
Name Census estimates that about 179 living Americans carry the first name Zelig. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zelig today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zelig births was 2019 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zelig. 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.
People living today
179
~ 1 in 1,914,829 Americans
Peak year
2019
12 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,720
Tracked since 1995
Popularity
Zelig: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zelig from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 68 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zelig remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zelig 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 Zelig during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zeligs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Zelig
The name Zelig is thought to originate from the Yiddish language, which is a dialect of German spoken by Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. The name is believed to be derived from the Hebrew word "zelig," which means "blessed" or "fortunate."
In the 11th century, the name Zelig appeared in several Jewish religious texts and historical records, indicating its use among Yiddish-speaking communities in regions like Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Zelig was Zelig ben Judah, a prominent rabbi and scholar who lived in the city of Mainz, Germany, in the late 11th century.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the name Zelig remained popular within Jewish communities across Europe. Notable individuals with this name include Zelig Kalmanovich (1510-1572), a philosopher and mathematician from Poland, and Zelig Bamberger (1633-1703), a renowned Talmudic scholar from Germany.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the name Zelig gained more widespread recognition beyond its traditional usage in Jewish communities. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Zelig Gingold (1860-1936), a Russian-born American actor and vaudeville performer who appeared in several early silent films.
Another notable figure was Zelig Kalmanovitch (1885-1944), a Belarusian-born Jewish author and playwright who wrote extensively about Jewish life and culture. He is considered one of the most influential Yiddish writers of the 20th century.
In more recent history, Zelig Harris (1909-1992) was an American linguist and mathematician who made significant contributions to the field of natural language processing and computational linguistics.
While the name Zelig has its roots in the Yiddish language and Jewish culture, it has gradually gained recognition and usage beyond its traditional boundaries, with individuals from various backgrounds and nationalities adopting it as a given name.
People
Zelig + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zelig 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
Zelig: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zelig?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 179 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zelig 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 1,914,829 US residents.
Is Zelig a common name?
We classify Zelig as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 181 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zelig most popular?
The single biggest year for Zelig was 2019, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zelig is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Zelig a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zelig in the SSA data are male. 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.
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.