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Zenas vs Zenia

American parents have registered 1,770 Zenias since 1880, against 447 Zenases. Zenia is still ahead, with 17 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Zenas against Zenia, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Zenas Zenia

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 110 years in which either name was published, Zenia for 100 years and Zenas for 10 years. The lead changed hands 13 times.

8 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Zenas Zenia
Total US births 4471,770
Most in one year 2343
Babies in 2025 under 517
Estimated living today 2801,500
Median age today 3732
Peak year 19881988
Best rank 2,682nd boys2,489th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked6,546th
First recorded 18851891
Girls / boys 5 / 4421,770 / 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 Zenases alive today are over 37; half the Zenias are over 32. That is 5 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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