Humanverse

Zailey vs Zain

American parents have registered 10,243 Zains since 1880, against 1,131 Zaileys. Zain is still ahead, with 530 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zailey against Zain, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zailey Zain

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

Zain has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1968 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2016, when Zailey had 90 and Zain had 388.

Side by side

  Zailey Zain
Total US births 1,13110,243
Most in one year 93550
Babies in 2025 40530
Estimated living today 1,10010,000
Median age today 810
Peak year 20182022
Best rank 2,071st girls557th boys
Rank in 2025 3,712th567th
First recorded 20001968
Girls / boys 1,131 / 0325 / 9,918

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 Zains alive today are over 10; half the Zaileys are over 8. That is 2 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: Zailey and Zain.