Zacharias
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "the Lord remembers" or "God has remembered".
Name Census estimates that about 2,004 living Americans carry the first name Zacharias. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zacharias today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zacharias births was 2016 (94 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zacharias. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 171,035 Americans
Peak year
2016
94 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,586
Tracked since 1930
Popularity
Zacharias: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zacharias from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 636 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zacharias remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zacharias by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Zacharias during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zacharias' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Zacharias, while Washington, Tennessee, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zacharias
The name Zacharias has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew name Zechariah, which means "Yahweh has remembered" or "the Lord remembers." The name is believed to have been in use since ancient times, as early as the 6th century BC.
The name Zacharias appears in several religious texts, including the Bible and the Quran. In the New Testament, Zacharias is the name of the father of John the Baptist, who was a priest in the temple of Jerusalem. The story of Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth conceiving John in their old age is told in the Gospel of Luke.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Zacharias can be found in the Book of Ezra, which is part of the Hebrew Bible. In this text, Zacharias is mentioned as one of the priests who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile in the 5th century BC.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Zacharias. One of the most famous was Zacharias Chrysopolitanus, a 6th-century Byzantine philosopher and theologian who served as the Patriarch of Jerusalem from 609 to 632 AD.
Another notable figure was Zacharias, the 11th-century Bishop of Besançon in France, who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. His feast day is celebrated on June 27th.
In the realm of literature, Zacharias Topelius (1818-1898) was a Finnish writer and poet who is considered one of the most significant authors in Swedish-language Finnish literature.
Zacharias Frankel (1801-1875) was a German Jewish theologian and scholar who played a significant role in the development of the Conservative Judaism movement.
Zacharias Janssen (c. 1585-c. 1638) was a Dutch spectacle-maker who is credited with the invention of the first compound microscope, a groundbreaking development in the field of optics and scientific instrumentation.
People
Zacharias + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zacharias as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zacharias: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zacharias?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,004 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zacharias going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 171,035 US residents.
Is Zacharias a common name?
We classify Zacharias as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,044 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zacharias most popular?
The single biggest year for Zacharias was 2016, when 94 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zacharias is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Zacharias a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zacharias in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.