Name Awesome

Zilla

Girls' name

Shade

Zilla has been given to 288 babies in the U.S. since 1882. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1918, with 14 recorded.

Babies named Zilla, 1951

1 in 526,000

Zilla over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zilla: meaning, origin, and history

Shade

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Zilla means

Zilla means “shade”, associated with צִלָּה.

Origin, language, and formation

Zilla is used in Italian.

Zilla comes through Biblical Hebrew צִלָּה.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 288 girls were recorded with the name Zilla between 1882 and 1951. Its highest annual count was 14 in 1918; its best national rank was #1,028 in 1882.

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 Zilla?

Zilla had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1951, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1951
1 in 526,000
7 of 3,682,692 births
Among girls only
1 in 257,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1951
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
364,665 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Zilla 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 1951 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 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 364,665 children born in 1951 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zilla. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zillas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zilla was born before 1917 — so the typical Zilla is around 108 today.

Median birth year
1917
About 108 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
29.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
23.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
7
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 29.5% of all recorded uses (85).

Is Zilla 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1918 (14)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
40.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,028
1882

Spellings of Zilla

Zilla is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 21.2% against Zilla's 0.02%.

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.

Zilla around the world

Where Zilla 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.

  • France
    2004–2004
    #5,298
    in 2004

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Zilla by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,028
1882
Peak year
1918
14 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
1951
All-time count
288
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Zilla

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

ZilahLyllaAyllaKallaZillahIsellaAellaZoellaIzellaAnellaNyellaHallaArellaCiellaLallaMellaZilphaZildaRiellaVallaRellaAstellaAvellaOrnella

Sibling names for Zilla

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 Zilla

Top names of 1918, Zilla's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1882Girls' names starting with ZShort Italian Girl Names