Zahra — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: ز-ه-ر (z-h-r), "to shine, to be radiant" — and from the same letters, zahr, a flower or blossom. Zahrāʾ is the feminine of azhar: the radiant, the luminous, with the sense of a brightness that is white or shining rather than burning.

From the same root: zahra (a flower), azhār (flowers), zuhūr (shining), muzhir (blossoming), az-Zahrāwān — a name given in the tradition to the two sūras al-Baqara and Al Imran, "the two luminous ones".

Who carried it: it is the epithet of Fatima bint Muhammad ﷺ — Fāṭima az-Zahrāʾ — and it is as an epithet that it entered wide use, which is why the pairing Fatima Zahra is so common. Given alone it keeps that association.

Spellings: Zahra, Zahraa, Zehra (Turkish), Zahra (Indonesian, Urdu), Zohra/Zahra (Maghrebi, where it is also the name for the planet Venus), زهراء.

Pronunciation: ZAH-raa — the final ʾ is a hamza, a small catch after the long vowel.

Note: Zahra (زهرة, "a flower") and Zahrāʾ (زهراء, "the radiant") are distinct words that English spelling collapses into one. Both are given as names.

Masculine counterpart: Azhar, Zahir.