Zev
A masculine Hebrew name derived from Ze'ev, meaning "wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 4,766 living Americans carry the first name Zev. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zev today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zev births was 2023 (267 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zev. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Zev with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Zev is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.8K
~ 1 in 71,917 Americans
Peak year
2023
267 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#908
Tracked since 1951
Census
Zev in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,407 people with the first name Zev, which placed it at #5,137 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,137
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,407 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zev
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zev is White at 90.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.0%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Zev described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Zev at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.9% · 3,097
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 137
- Two or more races3.1% · 106
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 39
- Black or African American0.7% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 5
Popularity
Zev: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zev from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,642 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zev remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zev by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Zev during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zevs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Zev, while Virginia, Ohio, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 199 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zev
The name Zev is a Hebrew name derived from the biblical Hebrew word "ze'ev," which means "wolf." It is a name that has been in use since ancient times in the Jewish community.
The earliest recorded use of the name Zev can be traced back to biblical times, where it is mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the name of one of the sons of Judah. In the Bible, Zev is referred to as "Zerah," which is a variant spelling of the same name.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Zev. One of the earliest known was Zev ben Shushan, a Jewish scholar who lived in Persia in the 5th century CE. He was known for his contributions to the study of the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism.
Another notable figure with the name Zev was Zev Wolf Kitzes, a Polish-born Jewish writer and journalist who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a prolific author and a prominent figure in the Zionist movement, advocating for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
In the 20th century, one of the most famous individuals with the name Zev was Zev Vilnay, an Israeli geographer and historian who was born in 1900 and died in 1988. He was a pioneering scholar of the geography and history of the Land of Israel and authored numerous books on the subject.
Another notable Zev was Zev Yaroslavsky, a Russian-born American politician who served on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from 1994 to 2014. He was born in 1948 and was a prominent figure in local politics in Los Angeles.
More recently, Zev Chafets, an American-born Israeli author and journalist, has gained recognition for his biographies of prominent political figures, including Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh. He was born in 1947 and has published numerous books on politics and culture.
While the name Zev has its roots in ancient Hebrew, it has remained a popular name among Jewish communities throughout history and continues to be used today, carrying with it a rich cultural and linguistic heritage.
People
Zev + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zev as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zev: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zev?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,766 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zev going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 71,917 US residents.
Is Zev a common name?
We classify Zev as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,869 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zev most popular?
The single biggest year for Zev was 2023, when 267 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zev is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zev in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,407 people with the name Zev, or 1.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,137 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Zev in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Zev?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zev appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,408 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Zev?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zev is White at 90.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.0%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Zev most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zev in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.9% (3,097 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Zev in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zev a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zev in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Zev still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zev in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Zev can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Zev?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Zev at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.