Zala

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Zhala in AZ Azerbaijan, IQ Iraq.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Zala is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name46K records spelled Zala4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Slovenia

  Also written Žala, Zaļā, Žāla

• Portuguese given name2.2K records spelled Zala8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Brazil, Slovenia

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

  Also written Zalá, Zâlâ, Zãlã, Zàlà

• Slovenian given name1.8K records spelled Zala12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Slovenia, Croatia, United States

  Languages: Slovenian, Croatian, Macedonian

  Also written Жала, Зала, Žala

• French given name893 records spelled Zala3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, India, Slovenia, Burkina Faso

  Also written Zalä

• Swahili given name552 records spelled Zala4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, South Africa

  Also written Zală

45 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Zala is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In csb, assembly hall (large room where people gather)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Zulu, to bear, to give birth to

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Serbo-Croatian, genitive plural of zlo

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Polish, synonym of podeszwa

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Nyanja, plural of chala

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In ilb, hunger; famine

  as a word·Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3 (BLR3), Tervuren 2002/2003

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.

Over time●

SI SURS — Najpogostejša imena in priimki (population register) — 33 years between 1992–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Zala Volčičb. 1971SIresearcher
• Zala Kuretb. 1981SIresearcher
• Zala Dobovšekb. 1983SIresearcher
• Zala Tomašičb. 1995SISlovenian politician and TV host
• Zala Zazaib. 1999AFPolicewoman
• Zala Meršnikb. 2001SIassociation football player
• Zala Urhb. 2002SISlovenian chess player
• Zala JevnikarSIresearcher
• Zala BrajnikSIresearcher
• Zala JanSIresearcher

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 181 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Zala?

We estimate roughly 6.0 thousand people bear Zala (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Zala have the most bearers?

Zala is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled zala.

Where is Zala most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Zala is densest in Slovenia — about 1 in 373 people — even though India holds more of our records for it.

Is Zala a male or female name?

Zala is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.