Name Awesome

Zulema

#2,718 in 2025Girls' name

Feminine form of Sulayman

Zulema has been given to 4,062 babies in the U.S. since 1889. In 2025 it ranked #2,718 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1996, with 106 recorded.

Babies named Zulema, 2025

1 in 51,800

Zulema over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zulema: meaning, origin, and history

Feminine form of Sulayman

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Zulema means

Zulema is a feminine form of Sulayman.

Origin, language, and formation

Zulema is used in Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Sulayman.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Zulema is pronounced /θuˈlema/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,062 girls were recorded with the name Zulema between 1889 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 106 in 1996; its best national rank was #1,477 in 1889.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,155 in 2020 to #2,718 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #3,913 in 2015 to #2,718 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 Zulema?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 51,800
64 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 25,100
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,718
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
35,906 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Zulema 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 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 35,906 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zulema. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zulemas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zulema was born before 1993 — so the typical Zulema is around 32 today.

Median birth year
1993
About 32 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
19.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
34.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,535
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 19.8% of all recorded uses (804).

Is Zulema 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
+211
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−563
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,195
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.64×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
60.4%
Peak was 1996 (106)
Years since peak
29
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,477
1889

Spellings of Zulema

Zulema is not the most common spelling — Zelma is, with 50.2% against Zulema's 12.1%.

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 Zulema is used

Across 1910–2025, Zulema was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in 7,692 girls, against 1 in 21,656 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

013 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in 7,692
  2. 2California1 in 14,286
  3. 3Arizona1 in 33,333
  4. 4Illinois1 in 100,000
  5. 5Florida1 in —
  6. 6North Carolina1 in —
  7. 7New York1 in —
  8. 8Washington1 in —

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. Zulema has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Zulema around the world

Where Zulema 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
    1900–1900
    #879
    in 1900
  • South Australia
    2003–2003
    #739
    in 2003

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Zulema

People whose public names include Zulema, 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.

Zulema by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,718
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 563
Best rank ever
#1,477
1889
Peak year
1996
106 that year
First recorded
1889
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,062
Count in 2025
64

Names similar to Zulema

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

ZulaZulmaZuleykaZuleikaSulemaZuleymaZullyZuleimaFatemaZulayReemaArsemaGemaRhemaSeemaKareemaNeemaEmaDremaNyemaNaeemaDeemaZuleyRema

Names with a curve like Zulema

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

ZenaidaLeanaIdaliaIleanaJoriIselaGiselaAllegraMyriamLeeannaXeniaRina

Sibling names for Zulema

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 Zulema

Top names of 1996, Zulema's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1889Girls' names starting with Z