Zahra
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in Arabic: (zahraa’) (,#)): bright, brilliant, radiant, shining, luminous; fem. of Azhar ,a;). Al-Zahra: an epithet of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad (s). See Azhar (m.). Comp. Zahrah 3.45
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Zahra is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Afghanistan it is the 8th most common given name.
- AFAfghanistan≈1 in 251(inferred from the name graph)
- SESweden1 in 147as Sara
- SISlovenia1 in 230as Sara
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Zahra itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 330 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 251 (inferred from the name graph)
874,128 named Sarah, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Afghanistan, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Sara in ES Spain, SI Slovenia, MK North Macedonia and Sahra in SE Sweden.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
(zahraa’) (,#)): bright, brilliant, radiant, shining, luminous; fem. of Azhar ,a;). Al-Zahra: an epithet of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad (s). See Azhar (m.). Comp. Zahrah 3.45
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of Muslim Names
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
How Zahra is read(measured from records)
Zahra is one spelling over 5 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Arabic23%
(zahraa’) (,#)): bright, brilliant, radiant, shining, luminous; fem. of Azhar ,a;). Al-Zahra: an epithet of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad (s). See Azhar (m.). Comp. Zahrah 3.45
as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names
bright, brilliant, radiant, shining, luminous; feminine of AzharyA ji
as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names
- English16%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Zahra in English.
- French11%
Arabic name associated here with « white ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
- Turkish10%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Zahra in Turkish.
- Persian8.9%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Zahra in Persian.
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Zahra counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 874,128as Sarah | 1 in 381 | 873K | Zahra | 330 |
| BR Brazil | — | 304,917as Sara | 1 in 694 | 305K | — | 2 |
| ES Spain | — | 179,954as Sara | 1 in 278 | 180K | Sara | 55 |
| AF Afghanistan | #8 | ≈150,000 est. | ≈1 in 251 | — | Zahra | 22 |
| SE Sweden | #265 | 69,262as Sara | 1 in 147 | 69K | Sahra | 39 |
| SI Slovenia | #62 | 9,128as Sara | 1 in 230 | 9.1K | Sara | 53 |
| MK North Macedonia | #22 | 8,590as Сара | 1 in 247 | 8.6K | Sara | 33 |
874,128 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020, counting the spelling sarah. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); SURS — resident population given names; State Statistical Office — living population names. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Zahra is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
‘Shining’, also ‘flower’. Zaynab, Zeinab ? From the name a beautiful, sweet-smelling plant. This was the name of the Prophet’s daughter, two of his wives, and his granddaughter. The latter brought Islam to Egypt.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
de flor (zahr); Tunisie, Ouled Ezzahra, Maroc
as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…
In Swedish, Zahra (m.fl. former) är ett arabiskt kvinnonamn som betyder ’strålande, skinande’. En variantform är Zehra. Muhammeds dotter Fatima hade tillnamnet az-Zahra.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltanehb. 1883IRPersian princess and memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty. (1883–1936)
- Zahra Mostafavi Khomeinib. 1940IRIranian politician
- Zahra Rahnavardb. 1945IRIranian academic and politician
- Zahra Kazemib. 1948IRIranian photographer
- Zahra Haddad-Adelb. 1979IRwife of Mojtaba Khamenei (1979-2026)
- Zahra Amir Ebrahimib. 1981IRIranian-French actress
- Zahra Nematib. 1985IRIranian Paralympic and Olympic archer (born 1985)
- Zahra Doumandjib. 1991DZFrench-Algerian actress and scientist
- Noor Pahlavib. 1992USnot in their usual namemember of Pahlavi dynasty
- Lexi Jonesb. 2000USnot in their usual nameEnglish photographer, fashion designer, and singer-songwriter; daughter of David Bowie
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 112 sources across 58 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 12K | #2,248 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 4.7K | #917 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 4.6K | #648 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 4.1K | #528 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 3.3K | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 562 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 142 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 141 | #32,284 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 39 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 28 | #54,729 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 21 | #2,248 |
| SI Slovenia | SURS — resident population given names | 2025 | 8 | #2,977 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Zahra mean, and where does it come from?
- (zahraa’) (,#)): bright, brilliant, radiant, shining, luminous; fem. of Azhar ,a;). Al-Zahra: an epithet of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad (s). See Azhar (m.). Comp. Zahrah 3.45 Recorded by A Dictionary of Muslim Names.
- In which country does Zahra have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 874 thousand people named Sarah, more than in any other country we hold.
- Is Zahra a male or female name?
- Zahra is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Zahra?
- In the etymology graph, Zehra is a form of the same name in other languages.
- How common is the name Zahra?
- In the United States, the national register counted 874,128 people named Sarah in 2020, about 1 in 381 residents.
- How common is Zahra compared with other names?
- In Afghanistan, Zahra is the 8th most common given name of 21,469 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Zahra?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/zahraThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Zahra” — the 8th most common given name in Afghanistan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.