Humanverse

Zailee vs Zaira

American parents have registered 4,986 Zairas since 1880, against 519 Zailees. Zaira is still ahead, with 224 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zailee against Zaira, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zailee Zaira

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

Zaira has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1969 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2016, when Zailee had 35 and Zaira had 103.

Side by side

  Zailee Zaira
Total US births 5194,986
Most in one year 45224
Babies in 2025 41224
Estimated living today 5204,900
Median age today 615
Peak year 20222025
Best rank 3,470th girls1,080th girls
Rank in 2025 3,645th1,080th
First recorded 20051969
Girls / boys 519 / 04,986 / 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 Zairas alive today are over 15; half the Zailees are over 6. That is 9 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: Zailee and Zaira.