Zenaida vs Zenobia
American parents have registered 4,592 Zenobias since 1880, against 2,972 Zenaidas. But in 2025 it was Zenaida that was commoner, 43 babies to 18.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Zenaida Zenobia
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
Of the 141 years in which either name was published, Zenobia for 101 years and Zenaida for 40 years. The lead changed hands 19 times.
- 1881–1971 Zenobia ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1974–1984 Zenaida ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1987–1990 Zenobia ahead
- 1991–2011 Zenaida ahead, apart from one short spell
- 2012–2016 Zenobia ahead
- 2019–2025 Zenaida ahead
11 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Zenaida | Zenobia | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,972 | 4,592 |
| Most in one year | 76 | 62 |
| Babies in 2025 | 43 | 18 |
| Estimated living today | 2,600 | 2,800 |
| Median age today | 32 | 43 |
| Peak year | 2023 | 1923 |
| Best rank | 2,379th girls | 928th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 3,517th | 6,325th |
| First recorded | 1913 | 1881 |
| Girls / boys | 2,972 / 0 | 4,592 / 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 Zenobias alive today are over 43; half the Zenaidas are over 32. That is 11 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Zenaida Texas (4.3×), California (3.7×), New York (2.8×)
- Zenobia Arkansas (9.8×), Louisiana (6.7×), New York (3.3×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Zenaida | Zenobia |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 54 | 28 |
| France | 15 | 5 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Zenaida and Zenobia.