X:
- Xochitl, Queen of the Toltec Empire
Y:
- Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother of the Ejisu
- Yang Kyoungjong, Korean soldier who was forced into fighting for the Japanese, then Russian, then German Armies
- Yao Niang, Chinese Court Dancer Remembered Today For Popularizing the Lotus Foot
- Yaoya Oshichi, Japanese Folk Figure
- Yeardley Love, Lacrosse Player
- Yennenga, Mother of the Mossi People
- Yolande of Aragon, Queen of So Much But Also Nothing
- Yvonne Dionne, One Fifth of the First Set of Quintuplets Known to Survive Infancy
Z:
- Zahi Hawass, if I could meet anyone alive today, it would be him
- Zelia Nuttall, Anthropologist and Archaeologist
- Zenobia, Empress of Palmyra in Present-day Syria
- Zerelda James Samuel, Jesse James's Mother
- Zerelda Mimms James, Jesse James's Wife
- Zina Young, Religious Leader and Midwife
- Zoe Porphyrogenita, Byzantine Empress
- Zoë Saldana, Actress, Model, and Dancer
- Zona Heaster Shue, The Only Case in United States History That Used a Ghost's Testimony to Convict a Man
- Zsa Zsa Gabor, Actress