Zane

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 24 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◐

Zane is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name15K records spelled Zane5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Philippines, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Zané, Žane, Zanè

• Latvian given name9.9K records spelled Zane6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Latvia, United States, Russia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Latvian, Lithuanian

  Also written Žane, Zané, Zanė, Zāne

• a separate given name3.2K records spelled Zane5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Latvia

  Also written Zané, Žane, Žanė, Zanë

• French given name2.5K records spelled Zane9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, South Africa, Latvia

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Zané, Zänë, Zanè, Zanë, Zàne

• Italian given name830 records spelled Zane7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Italy, Slovenia, United Kingdom

  Also written Zanè, Zan, Žan, Zané, Zanë

• Croatian given name642 records spelled Zane11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Croatia, Latvia, Canada

  Languages: Croatian, Slovenian, Bulgarian

  Also written Žane, Зане, Zanë

• Albanian given name541 records spelled Zane3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Albania, United States

  Also written Zanë, Zanê

60 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●

Zane is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A male given name transferred from the surname.

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

• In Italian, variante regional setentrional de Zanni

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

• In Italian, Variante di Zanni

  as a name·Dizionario dei cognomi italiani

• In Albanian, indefinite dative/ablative singular of zanë

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

• In Latvian, Sievietes vārds

  as a word·Tēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 112 years between 1914–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Zane Greyb. 1872USAmerican novelist (1872–1939)
• Zane C. Hodgesb. 1932USAmerican biblical scholar
• Zane Smithb. 1960USAmerican baseball player
• Zane Loweb. 1973NZNew Zealand DJ (born 1973)
• Zane Holtzb. 1987CACanadian actor
• Zane Phillipsb. 1993USAmerican actor
• Zane Weirb. 1995ZAItalian athlete
• Zane Huettb. 1997USAmerican actor
• Levi Millerb. 2002AUnot in their usual nameAustralian actor and model
• Zane BuzbyUSactress, philanthropist, film director, television director

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 · 636 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Zane?

We estimate roughly 50 thousand people bear Zane (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Zane have the most bearers?

We estimate about 44 thousand people bear Zane in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled zane.

Where is Zane most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Zane is densest in Latvia — about 1 in 342 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Zane compared with other names?

In New Zealand, Zane is the 305th most common given name of 22,472 given names recorded there.

Is Zane a male or female name?

Zane is a male 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.

What does the name Zane mean?

Recorded meaning: Transferred use of a surname of uncertain origin.