Zita
A feminine Italian name derived from the ancient Greek title "zita" meaning "a peasant girl".
Name Census estimates that about 1,113 living Americans carry the first name Zita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zita today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zita births was 1922 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zita. 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 Zita with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 307,955 Americans
Peak year
1922
69 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,513
Tracked since 1882
Census
Zita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,670 people with the first name Zita, which placed it at #6,103 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
#6,103
National first-name rank
People counted
2.7K
2,670 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zita is White at 55.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.9%) and Black (11.2%). 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 Zita 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 Zita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.5% · 1,482
- Hispanic or Latino22.9% · 612
- Black or African American11.2% · 299
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.9% · 210
- Two or more races2.0% · 53
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 14
Popularity
Zita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zita from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 544 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zita 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 Zita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zitas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the most babies named Zita, while Louisiana, Minnesota, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zita
The name Zita is derived from the Italian name Zita, which in turn comes from the Late Latin name Zita or Zitha. This name is believed to have originated from the Gothic name Guhilidis or Guthihaidis, composed of the elements gut (god) and haid (kind, form). It is thought to have been introduced to Italy during the Gothic invasions of the 5th century AD.
Zita was a popular name among early Christian martyrs and saints. One of the earliest recorded examples is Saint Zita, a servant girl from Lucca, Italy who lived in the 13th century and was known for her piety and charitable works. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1696.
Another notable bearer of the name was Zita of Bourbon-Parma (1892-1989), the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from 1916 to 1918. She was born Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma and married Emperor Charles I of Austria in 1911.
In the 20th century, Zita Kabátová (1913-2005) was a Czech actress and opera singer who performed in numerous plays and films during her career spanning over six decades. She was also a prominent figure in the Czech resistance movement against Nazi occupation during World War II.
Zita Mercenier (1916-1998) was a Belgian resistance fighter and member of the Comet Line, a World War II escape line that helped Allied soldiers and airmen escape from occupied Europe. She was awarded the King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom for her efforts.
Zita Johann (1904-1993) was an American actress and dancer who appeared in several Hollywood films during the 1920s and 1930s, including The Mummy (1932) and Imitations of Life (1934).
Notable bearers
Famous people named Zita
People
Zita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zita 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
Zita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,113 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zita 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 307,955 US residents.
Is Zita a common name?
We classify Zita as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,961 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zita most popular?
The single biggest year for Zita was 1922, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zita is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,670 people with the name Zita, or 0.88 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,103 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 Zita 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 Zita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zita appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,676 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Zita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zita is White at 55.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.9%) and Black (11.2%). 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 Zita most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.5% (1,482 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 Zita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zita in the SSA data are female. 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 Zita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zita 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 Zita 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 people are named Zita?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.