Zlatan
A masculine name of Slavic origin meaning "gold" or "supreme".
Name Census estimates that about 228 living Americans carry the first name Zlatan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zlatan today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zlatan births was 2016 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zlatan. 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 Zlatan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
228
~ 1 in 1,503,309 Americans
Peak year
2016
25 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,218
Tracked since 2009
Census
Zlatan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 363 people with the first name Zlatan, which placed it at #25,907 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
#25,907
National first-name rank
People counted
363
363 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zlatan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zlatan is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.4%) and Black (1.9%). 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 Zlatan 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 Zlatan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.9% · 261
- Hispanic or Latino23.4% · 85
- Black or African American1.9% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 5
- Two or more races1.4% · 5
Popularity
Zlatan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zlatan from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 159 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zlatan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zlatan 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 Zlatan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zlatans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Zlatan
The name Zlatan has its origins in the Slavic languages, particularly in the Bosnian and Serbian dialects. It is derived from the Slavic root "zlat," which means "gold" or "golden." The name's earliest known usage dates back to the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, in the regions of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Zlatan can be found in a medieval Bosnian manuscript from the 14th century, which chronicles the life of a nobleman named Zlatan Pavlović. This document suggests that the name was already in use among the nobility and upper classes of the region during that time period.
In the 15th century, a Serbian ruler named Zlatan Dušanović was recorded in historical texts as a minor nobleman who played a role in the conflicts between the Serbian principalities and the Ottoman Empire. His name serves as an early example of the name's usage among the ruling classes of the Serbian lands.
During the 16th century, a renowned Serbian poet and writer named Zlatan Filipović (1530-1590) gained recognition for his contributions to the literary tradition of the Balkans. His works, which included poetry and historical chronicles, helped to further popularize the name within the region.
In the 19th century, a Bosnian painter named Zlatan Kučanović (1820-1892) achieved acclaim for his landscapes and portraits, which captured the beauty of the Bosnian countryside and its people. His artwork is still celebrated as an important part of the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Another notable figure with the name Zlatan was a Serbian military commander named Zlatan Radosavljević (1875-1941), who played a significant role in the Balkan Wars and World War I. He was highly decorated for his service and is remembered as a brave and skilled leader in the history of the Serbian military.
These examples demonstrate the long-standing presence and significance of the name Zlatan within the Slavic cultures of the Balkans, where it has been associated with individuals from various walks of life, including nobility, artists, writers, and military leaders.
People
Zlatan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zlatan 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
Zlatan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zlatan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 228 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zlatan 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 1,503,309 US residents.
Is Zlatan a common name?
We classify Zlatan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 230 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zlatan most popular?
The single biggest year for Zlatan was 2016, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zlatan is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zlatan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 363 people with the name Zlatan, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,907 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 Zlatan 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 Zlatan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zlatan appears almost entirely male. Of the 362 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Zlatan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zlatan is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.4%) and Black (1.9%). 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 Zlatan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zlatan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.9% (261 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 Zlatan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zlatan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zlatan 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.
Is Zlatan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zlatan 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 Zlatan 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 Zlatan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.