Zadie is a variant of Sadie, the old nickname for Sarah, and so shares its Hebrew meaning "princess" or "noblewoman". The British novelist Zadie Smith, who changed the spelling of her name from Sadie as a teenager, made the Z form widely known. In the United States Zadie peaked at number 1364 in 2016 and ranks 2193 in 2025 with 85 births, a fraction of Sadie's numbers.