How rare is the name Zelda?

7,424 people in the United States have the first name Zelda, about 1 in 40,683. It ranks #3,017 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

ZELDA

#3,017

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
7,424
About
1 in 40,683
This common or more
81.4%
Who bears it

Of the 7,424 people named Zelda, 60.7% reported their origin as White, 19.7% as Black and 11.3% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are female (99.7%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Zelda peaked in 2020, when 526 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
2020
Births that year
526
In 2025*
328 ▼38%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 16,739 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Zelda by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1900s, when it ranked #691. The largest share of babies named Zelda, 30.8%, were born in 2013 or later.

1880s#1,56662
1890s#941254
1900s#691595
1910s#7481,854
1920s#8172,376
1930s#9351,655
1940s#1,3401,074
1950s#1,5531,160
1960s#1,5921,265
1970s#4,052305
1980s#7,562154
1990s#10,174144
2000s#6,344391
2010s#1,7202,889
2020s#1,3102,561
Before 19012.2%
Greatest Generation 1901–2725.9%
Silent Generation 1928–4516.5%
Baby boom 1946–6414.1%
Generation X 1965–804.8%
Millennials 1981–961.4%
Generation Z 1997–124.3%
2013 and later30.8%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Zelda is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Zelda has been most common in New York (1.9×), West Virginia (1.8×), and Maryland (1.6×), and least common in Wisconsin (0.34×).

11,151 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Zelda

#3,015 Raj · 7,427#3,016 Roseanne · 7,426#3,018 Abril · 7,422#3,019 Jaylynn · 7,418

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