Zakaria
A masculine Arabic name meaning "the Lord has remembered" or "remembrance of God".
Name Census estimates that about 3,200 living Americans carry the first name Zakaria. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Zakaria today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zakaria births was 2011 (175 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zakaria. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Zakaria with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Zakaria is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 107,111 Americans
Peak year
2011
175 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,389
Tracked since 1980
Census
Zakaria in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,453 people with the first name Zakaria, which placed it at #5,090 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,090
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,453 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zakaria
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zakaria is White at 45.8%. The next largest groups are Black (37.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Zakaria described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Zakaria at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.8% · 1,582
- Black or African American37.2% · 1,284
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.5% · 293
- Two or more races6.1% · 210
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 83
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Zakaria
Zakaria leans heavily male at 85.6% of total registrations, but 466 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Zakaria as a male name
- Ranked #1,389 in 2024
- 135 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (145 births)
Zakaria as a female name
- Ranked #11,048 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (60 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zakaria leans strongly male. 3,130 people counted with this name were male (90.6%), compared with 326 female bearers (9.4%).
Popularity
Zakaria: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zakaria from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,365 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zakaria remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zakaria 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 Zakaria during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zakarias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. New York, Minnesota, California recorded the most babies named Zakaria, while Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 81 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zakaria
The name Zakaria has its origins in the ancient Semitic languages, specifically Hebrew and Arabic. It is derived from the Hebrew name Zechariah, which means "God has remembered" or "the Lord remembers." The Arabic version, Zakaria, carries a similar meaning, translating to "the one God has remembered."
The name Zakaria can be traced back to biblical times, as it appears in the Old Testament of the Bible. The prophet Zechariah, whose name is the Hebrew form of Zakaria, is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and his book is included in the Old Testament. His prophecies are believed to have been written in the late 6th century BCE, during the period of the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylonian captivity.
In the Quran, the Islamic holy book, Zakaria is mentioned as the father of John the Baptist, who is referred to as Yahya. The Quran describes Zakaria as a righteous man and a prophet, and he is revered in both Islam and Christianity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Zakaria can be found in the ancient Greek texts, where it appears as Zacharias. This was the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Zechariah, which was commonly used among Jewish communities living in the Greek-speaking world during the Hellenistic period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Zakaria:
1. Zakaria bin Awam (c. 750-828 CE): A prominent Arab scholar from Seville, Spain, who made significant contributions to the fields of agriculture, horticulture, and botany. He wrote the famous treatise "Book of Agriculture," which was widely influential in medieval Europe.
2. Zakaria al-Qazwini (c. 1203-1283 CE): A renowned Persian scholar, geographer, and writer. He authored the influential work "Monuments of the Lands and the History of God's Bondsmen," which provided detailed descriptions of various regions, cities, and cultures of the medieval world.
3. Zakaria al-Razi (c. 865-925 CE): A Persian polymath, philosopher, and one of the most influential scholars of the Islamic Golden Age. He made significant contributions to various fields, including medicine, chemistry, and physics.
4. Zakaria al-Ansari (c. 1088-1153 CE): A renowned Sufi scholar and mystic from Herat, Afghanistan. He was a prominent figure in the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence and is revered for his spiritual teachings and writings.
5. Zakaria Ouyang (1625-1705 CE): A Chinese scholar, calligrapher, and painter during the Qing Dynasty. He was renowned for his mastery of the Chinese brush and his contributions to the development of the "Orthodox School" of Chinese painting.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who bore the name Zakaria throughout history, demonstrating the widespread use and cultural significance of this name across various regions and time periods.
People
Zakaria + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zakaria 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
Zakaria: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zakaria?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,200 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zakaria 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 107,111 US residents.
Is Zakaria a common name?
We classify Zakaria as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,235 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zakaria most popular?
The single biggest year for Zakaria was 2011, when 175 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zakaria is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zakaria in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,453 people with the name Zakaria, or 1.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,090 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Zakaria in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Zakaria?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zakaria leans strongly male. 3,130 people counted with this name were male (90.6%), compared with 326 female bearers (9.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Zakaria?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zakaria is White at 45.8%. The next largest groups are Black (37.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Zakaria most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zakaria in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.8% (1,582 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Zakaria in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zakaria a male name?
Yes, 85.6% of people registered as Zakaria 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.
Is Zakaria still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zakaria in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Zakaria can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people are called Zakaria?
Find out how many people share the name Zakaria on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.