Zillah
A feminine name derived from Hebrew meaning "shade" or "shadow".
Name Census estimates that about 257 living Americans carry the first name Zillah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zillah today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zillah births was 2024 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zillah. 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 Zillah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
257
~ 1 in 1,333,674 Americans
Peak year
2024
20 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,139
Tracked since 1881
Census
Zillah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 279 people with the first name Zillah, which placed it at #30,942 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
#30,942
National first-name rank
People counted
279
279 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zillah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zillah is White at 35.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.8%) and Black (25.4%). 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 Zillah 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 Zillah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.1% · 98
- Hispanic or Latino25.8% · 72
- Black or African American25.4% · 71
- Two or more races7.5% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
Popularity
Zillah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zillah from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 105 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zillah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zillah 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 Zillah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zillah
The name Zillah is of Hebrew origin, derived from the Biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis. It is believed to have emerged during ancient times in the Middle East.
The name Zillah is associated with the Hebrew word "tsilah," which means "shadow" or "shade." In the Book of Genesis, Zillah is mentioned as one of the wives of Lamech, a descendant of Cain, and the mother of Tubal-Cain and Naamah.
The first recorded instance of the name Zillah is found in the Book of Genesis, which is believed to have been written between the 15th and 13th centuries BCE. This ancient text is considered a significant part of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Zillah. One of the earliest recorded figures was Zillah bat Adonia, a prominent Jewish scholar and poet who lived in the 13th century CE in Spain. She is known for her writings on religious and philosophical topics.
Another notable Zillah was Zillah Bateman (1823-1888), an English stage actress and writer who gained fame for her performances in Shakespearean plays and her published works on the theater.
In the United States, Zillah Denison Eisenberg (1862-1946) was a prominent social worker and advocate for women's rights. She founded the Daughters of Zion organization and worked tirelessly to support Jewish immigrants and promote education.
Zillah MacDonald (1858-1915) was a Canadian artist and painter known for her landscape and portrait works, which captured the beauty of the Canadian wilderness and its people.
In more recent times, Zillah Baingana (born 1966) is a Ugandan writer and author, celebrated for her short stories and novels that explore themes of identity, culture, and the complexities of modern African life.
People
Zillah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zillah 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
Zillah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zillah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 257 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zillah 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 1,333,674 US residents.
Is Zillah a common name?
We classify Zillah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 537 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zillah most popular?
The single biggest year for Zillah was 2024, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zillah is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zillah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 279 people with the name Zillah, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,942 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 Zillah 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 Zillah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zillah appears almost entirely female. Of the 277 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Zillah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zillah is White at 35.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.8%) and Black (25.4%). 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 Zillah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zillah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.1% (98 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 Zillah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zillah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zillah 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 Zillah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zillah 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 Zillah 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 many people share the name Zillah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.