Zema
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- ZEH-mah
- Origin
- Amharic
- US rank, 2025
- #8,858 for girls
Zema is a girls' name of Amharic origin, meaning “chant, melody”. In 2025 it ranked 8,858th for girls in the US (11 babies).
What does Zema mean?
Amharic: Amharic and Ge'ez word
“chant, melody”
In Ethiopia, zema is the sacred chant of the Orthodox Church, traditionally credited to the 6th-century Saint Yared.
Is Zema a girl's or a boy's name?
Zema is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 11 girls in the US. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Zema in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- #8,858among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 11about 1 in 150,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Fallingdown 36% in five years
- Same name in a class
- under 1%chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 11 girls in the US were named Zema, making it the 8,858th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 6,625th. Its busiest year was 2019, with 21 girls. It first appears in the records in 2011.
Half of all the girls named Zema in the US since 1880 were born between 2017 and 2022, the years shaded on the chart below.
Zema in the US, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #8,858 |
| 2024 | 14 | #7,590 |
| 2023 | 11 | #8,984 |
| 2022 | 17 | #6,702 |
| 2021 | 13 | #8,019 |
| 2020 | 17 | #6,625 |
| 2019 | 21 | #5,794 |
| 2018 | 18 | #6,517 |
| 2017 | 11 | #9,337 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,109 |
| 2015 | 8 | #11,830 |
| 2014 | 6 | #14,552 |
| 2013 | 7 | #13,145 |
| 2012 | 0 | – |
| 2011 | 6 | #14,816 |
Names like Zema
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Zayla Zaya Safa Zamira Zahara Zaira Zhamira Rahma Zaliyah Hafsa Zayda Zaniyah
More Amharic names
Amare Aryam Gelila Mahelet Nolawi Haset Tafari Bruk Leul Naod Kidus Melat Haile Menelik Nuhamin Meklit
Sources
Figures from Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Zema: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/zema, updated 20 October 2026.