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Zainab

#810 in 2025Girls' name

Alternate transcription of Zaynab

Zainab has been given to 7,326 babies in the U.S. since 1957. In 2025 it ranked #810 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 338 recorded.

Babies named Zainab, 2025

1 in 9,810

Zainab over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zainab: meaning, origin, and history

Alternate transcription of Zaynab

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Zainab means

Zainab is a alternate transcription of Zaynab.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Zainab → Zaynab. The family’s meaning is “fragrant flower”, recorded in English with the source elements zaynab.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Zaynab.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,326 girls were recorded with the name Zainab between 1957 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 338 in 2025; its best national rank was #810 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #965 in 2020 to #810 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #945 in 2015 to #810 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Zainab?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 9,810
338 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 4,750
0.02% of girls
Rank, 2025
#810
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
6,800 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Zainab sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 1001%
School of 5005%

Put another way: gather 6,800 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zainab. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zainabs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zainab was born before 2013 — so the typical Zainab is around 12 today.

Median birth year
2013
About 12 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
37.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
83.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
7,326
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 37.1% of all recorded uses (2,720).

Is Zainab rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+41
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+155
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+135
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.17×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (338)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
6.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#810
2025

Spellings of Zainab

Zainab is not the most common spelling — Raina is, with 19.4% against Zainab's 11.4%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Zainab is used

Across 2016–2025, Zainab was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 1,587 girls, against 1 in 4,291 across all states with data. It was least common in Arizona (1 in 50,000).

263 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 1,587
  2. 2Michigan1 in 1,852
  3. 3Maryland1 in 2,083
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 2,222
  5. 5Virginia1 in 2,222
  6. 6Illinois1 in 2,439
  7. 7Minnesota1 in 3,448
  8. 8Washington1 in 3,704

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Zainab around the world

Where Zainab ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #128
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1987–2025
    #217
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2021–2025
    #290
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    1999–2025
    #273
    in 2025
  • France
    1971–2025
    #795
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2024
    #413
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #261
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1995–2013
    #403
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Zainab

People whose public names include Zainab, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Zainab in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Zainab. Linked forms have their own page here.

ZaynabZeinabZeynepZainabu

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Zainab by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#810
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 155
Best rank ever
#810
2025
Peak year
2025
338 that year
First recorded
1957
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
7,326
Count in 2025
338

Names similar to Zainab

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ZairaZaidaZainaZaileyZaynabZaireZaileeZailaZaideeZeinabZailynZairahZainahZaiyaZainebZailahZaiyahZailynnZaiaZaiahZainZaidyZeynabZaily

Names with a curve like Zainab

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Zainab, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

NoorAyaTreasureMaddieKaiAzariaLeenaRayneGiavannaViviannaMilenaSky

Sibling names for Zainab

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Zainab

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