Zen
About Zen
A spiritual word name used by actor Zoe Saldana for her son as well as more recently Nick Cannon and Alyssa Scott for their late son. Zen has been trending in recent years along with other spiritual names such as Bodhi and Zion, and recently entered the US Top 1000 for the first time in 2022.
Pronounced ZEN.
As of October 2026, Zen ranked #1144 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #907 in 2022, Nameberry popularity #812.
Editor's take: The name Zen is a boy's name of Japanese origin meaning "meditation".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #1,728 | 88 | 45.8 |
| 2015 | #1,953 | 75 | 39.1 |
| 2016 | #1,973 | 74 | 39 |
| 2017 | #1,716 | 92 | 49.7 |
| 2018 | #1,529 | 112 | 61.7 |
| 2019 | #1,393 | 128 | 71.3 |
| 2020 | #1,199 | 160 | 92.7 |
| 2021 | #1,196 | 164 | 93.7 |
| 2022 | #907 | 255 | 146 |
| 2023 | #935 | 242 | 141.5 |
| 2024 | #959 | 236 | 137 |
| 2025 | #1,144 | 185 | 108.3 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Zen.
Zen on lists
Famous Zens
- Zen (b. 2016)
son of Zoe Saldana and Marco Perego
- Zen Scott
son of actor Corey Feldman.
Zen in pop culture
- Zen
birth name Hyun Ryu, is a character from the mobile otome game 'Mystic Messenger.'
- Zen Starling
from the book series 'Railhead'
- "Zenzenzense"
song by RADWIMPS