The birth of Lady Zaynab (s) is popularly considered to be on the 1st Sha’baan in the 5th or 6th year after the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family) migration to Medina. She was the daughter of Imam ‘Ali and the Lady Fatima, the granddaughter of the Prophet and the sister of Imam Hasan, Imam Husayn, and Umm Kulthūm.
It is said that when she was born, the Prophet came to the house of Lady Fatima and asked for the newborn child. He embraced the baby and began to cry over the hardships she would have to go through later in life. Soon after, the angel Jibraeel came down upon the Prophet and informed him that Allah (swt) wants him to name the child Zaynab.
The name Zaynab has two possible meanings in Arabic:
1) The common meaning of zaynab is a beautiful tree
2) Some scholars have mentioned the possibility of zaynab being a combination of two words: zayn (beauty) and ab (father), and that it means ‘the beauty of one’s father