Humanverse

Zara vs Zaryah

American parents have registered 20,930 Zaras since 1880, against 999 Zaryahs. Zara is still ahead, with 1,432 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zara against Zaryah, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zara Zaryah

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Zara has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1896 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2011, when Zara had 449 and Zaryah had 64.

Side by side

  Zara Zaryah
Total US births 20,930999
Most in one year 1,44164
Babies in 2025 1,43244
Estimated living today 20,000990
Median age today 710
Peak year 20222011
Best rank 201st girls2,725th girls
Rank in 2025 212th3,459th
First recorded 18961998
Girls / boys 20,930 / 0999 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Zaryahs alive today are over 10; half the Zaras are over 7. That is 3 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Zara and Zaryah.