Variant of Zadie/Sadie, possibly from Arabic 'zayd' meaning abundance or growth.
Zaidee is a rare and charming name that most likely developed as a fanciful English elaboration, either of the Arabic name Zaida (feminine of Zaid, meaning 'growth,' 'abundance,' or 'surplus' — from the root meaning 'to increase') or as a whimsical variant of Sadie, itself a diminutive of Sarah. The -ee ending gives it the same playful, affectionate quality found in nineteenth-century English pet names like Ettie, Jennie, and Gracie, suggesting a name that may have begun as a nickname and hardened into a formal given name through common use.
The name appears in English literary history most notably through Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 1876 novel Vixen, in which a spirited young heroine named Vixen has a beloved horse called Zaidee — an association that links the name to the Victorian romance with the exotic East and with feisty, unconventional femininity. Braddon was one of the most widely read novelists of her era, and such appearances in popular fiction had genuine influence on naming fashions. The name also appears in scattered American census records from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, concentrated in the South and Midwest.
Zaidee today is extraordinarily uncommon, which is precisely its appeal for parents seeking something genuinely singular. It carries the warmth of Sadie, the exoticism of Zaida, and the vintage quirk of a name plucked from the margins of the nineteenth century — a name that seems to belong to a spirited, independent character in a novel not yet written.