Humanverse

Zora vs Zoriah

American parents have registered 10,248 Zoras since 1880, against 694 Zoriahs. Zora is still ahead, with 273 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zora against Zoriah, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zora Zoriah

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

Zora has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2000, when Zora had 32 and Zoriah had 19.

Side by side

  Zora Zoriah
Total US births 10,248694
Most in one year 35344
Babies in 2025 27319
Estimated living today 5,500690
Median age today 912
Peak year 20192009
Best rank 786th girls3,619th girls
Rank in 2025 968th6,116th
First recorded 18801996
Girls / boys 10,202 / 46694 / 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 Zoriahs alive today are over 12; half the Zoras are over 9. 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: Zora and Zoriah.