Zaire is the name the Congo River and the Democratic Republic of the Congo carried from 1971 to 1997; it comes from the Kikongo word nzere or nzadi, usually translated as "river that swallows all rivers" or simply "great river". As an African-American first name it took off in the 1990s and has a strong, modern sound. Zaire entered the US top 1000 in 2002, rose from number 879 in 2015 to number 466 in 2023 and ranks number 503 in 2025.