Zia
given name · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Zia is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Pakistan than in any other country. In Afghanistan it is the 68th most common given name. Recorded meaning: Zia is a biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning "trembling" or "movement".
- PKPakistan≈1 in 2K(inferred from the name graph)
- AFAfghanistan≈1 in 2.1K
- BDBangladesh≈1 in 4.4K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Pakistan (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 148 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈110,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Pakistan, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
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)
Zia is a biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning "trembling" or "movement." In the Old Testament, Zia was a male clan leader in the tribe of Gad. Though historically masculine, the name is sometimes used for girls in modern times.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Zia 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PK Pakistan | #166 | ≈110,000 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Zia | 126 |
| BD Bangladesh | #606 | ≈37,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.4K | listed | Zia | 73 |
| AF Afghanistan | #68 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.1K | — | Zia | 31 |
| CN China | — | ≈5,200 est. | ≈1 in 270K | — | Zia | 7 |
| US United States | — | 3,352 | 1 in 99K | 2.3K | Zia | 148 |
| SA Saudi Arabia | #601 | ≈3,300 est. | ≈1 in 10K | — | Zia | 56 |
| AE United Arab Emirates | #525 | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 5K | — | Zia | 71 |
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. 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)
Zia is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The Hebrew name Zia (זִיעַ) is derived from a root meaning "trembling," "shaking," or "agitation".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
While a minor figure, Zia's inclusion in the biblical genealogies highlights the theme of God's faithfulness in preserving each family and individual within the covenant people of Israel. His record serves as a testament to the continuity and identity of the Israelite tribes, even those geographically distant from the central places of worship.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, A male given name from Arabic popular among Muslims.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Arabic, light, glow, illumination, splendour
as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names
In Arabic, light, glow, illumination. Jao ll ga
as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names
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)
- Zia Atabayb. 1942USIranian-American musician and activist
- Zia Shahidb. 1945PKPakistani journalist (1945 - 2021)
- Zia Hossainb. 1970BDbadminton player
- Zia Soaresb. 1972AOAngolan director and actress
- Zia Cookeb. 2001USAmerican basketball player (born 2001)
- Salma Zia Rahma Arissantib. 2006IDbadminton player
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 75 sources across 43 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.1K | #13,983 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.5K | #18,486 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 924 | #25,169 |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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
- Is Zia a male or female name?
- Zia is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- What does the name Zia mean?
- Recorded meaning: Zia is a biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning "trembling" or "movement."
- Where does the name Zia come from?
- Zia is a biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning "trembling" or "movement." In the Old Testament, Zia was a male clan leader in the tribe of Gad. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- What are other forms of the name Zia?
- In the etymology graph, Ziya and Diya are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Zia have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 115 thousand people named Zia in Pakistan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled zia.
- How common is the name Zia?
- In the United States, the national register counted 3,352 people named Zia in 2020, about 1 in 99 thousand residents.
- How common is Zia compared with other names?
- In Pakistan, Zia is the 166th most common given name of 77,659 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Zia?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ziaThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Zia” — the 166th most common given name in Pakistan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.