Zeno
Zeno reached its high-water mark in 2024 at number 2,393, and has been recorded 1,491 times in all. In 2025 it ranked 2,516th. About 900 Zenos are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 13.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Zeno
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 1,491
- Estimated living today
- 900
- Median age today
- 13
- Peak year
- 2024
- Best rank
- 2,393rd
- Rank in 2025
- 2,516th
- First recorded
- 1883
How old the living Zenos are
born that year still alive today
Of the 1,491 babies given the name since 1883, about 900 are alive — 60 in every hundred. Roughly 510 of them are children and 120 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2012 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Ancient Greek
Via Latin Zēnō, from Ancient Greek Ζήνων, an ancient derivative of Ζεύς, from grk-pro *dzéus, from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws. Modern scientific and philosophical use derives from Zeno of Elea, poser of Zeno's paradoxes.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Zenos
- Zeno of Elea (489 BC–424 BC)Greek philosopher (c. 495 – c. 430 BC)
- Zeno of Citium (333 BC–262 BC)Greek philosopher, founder of Stoicism
- Zeno Debast (born 2003)Belgian association football player
- Zeno of Verona (300–371)Italian Catholic bishop and saint
- Zeno of Sidon (149 BC–69 BC)Epicurean philosopher from the Phoenician city of Sidon (150-c. 75 BCE)
- Zeno of Tarsus (250 BC–200 BC)3rd century BCE Greek Stoic philosopher
- Zeno Colò (1920–1993)alpine skier
People named Zeno with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Zeno is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Zeno is most concentrated in North Carolina (12.0×), California (4.7×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2024
The most popular boys’ names the year Zeno peaked:
Zeno elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italy boys | Zeno | 4,410 | — |
| Belgium boys | Zeno | 650 | 186th |
| Switzerland boys | Zeno | 387 | 325th |
| England and Wales boys | Zeno | 130 | 1,701st |
| France boys | Zeno | 75 | 6,097th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Zeno: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German boys | Switzerland | Zeno | 170 | 0.014% | 432nd |
| French boys | Switzerland | Zeno | 30 | 0.007% | 350th |
| Italian boys | Switzerland | Zeno | 187 | 0.287% | 11th |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Zeno is most concentrated in Ticino, where 0.29% of children were given it – 182 of them.
Zeno: rank by region
In 2025, Zeno was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Zeno | 806 | 6 |
In 2023, Zeno was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Italy.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste | Zeno | 10 | 1 |
In 2022, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Zeno appears in the lists for Province of Antwerp (343rd).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Italy after 10 names – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Zeno by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 4 | 593rd |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Zeno among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Zeno | — | 5 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Related names
Zeno against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.