In May 2002, a rotational lightcurve of Zulu was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Robert Stephens at the Santana Observatory in California.
Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 18.64 hours with a brightness variation of 0.11 magnitude (U=3).
[8] One month later, French amateur astronomers René Roy and Laurent Brunetto obtained another lightcurve with a concurring period of 18.65 hours and an amplitude of 0.09 magnitude (U=1).
[3] This minor planet was named after the South African Zulu people, in recognition of the tribesmen who devotedly worked at the Johannesburg Union Observatory.
[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 20 February 1976 (M.P.C.