Zakariyya
Of Arabic origin, meaning "God has remembered".
Name Census estimates that about 252 living Americans carry the first name Zakariyya. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zakariyya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zakariyya births was 2016 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zakariyya. 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 Zakariyya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
252
~ 1 in 1,360,136 Americans
Peak year
2016
20 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,272
Tracked since 1999
Popularity
Zakariyya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zakariyya from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 114 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zakariyya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zakariyya 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 Zakariyya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zakariyya
The name Zakariyya has its origins in the Aramaic language and is derived from the Hebrew name Zechariah, which means "God has remembered." The Aramaic form of the name, Zakrya, was widely used in ancient times in regions where Aramaic was spoken, including parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
The name is mentioned in several religious texts, most notably in the Quran and the Bible. In the Quran, Zakariyya is the name given to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. In the Bible, Zechariah is one of the twelve minor prophets and the author of the Book of Zechariah in the Old Testament.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Zakariyya can be found in the Aramaic papyri from the 5th century BCE, which were discovered in Elephantine, an island in the Nile River in Egypt. These papyri contain several mentions of individuals with the name Zakrya.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Zakariyya or its variations. One of the most famous was Al-Zakariyya al-Razi (854-925 CE), a Persian polymath, philosopher, and renowned physician who made significant contributions to the fields of medicine, chemistry, and philosophy.
Another prominent figure was Zakariyya al-Qazwini (1203-1283 CE), an Arab scientist, geographer, and writer who authored the famous cosmography work "Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence."
In the realm of literature, Zakariyya al-Ansari (1420-1520 CE) was a renowned Sufi poet and mystic from Kashmir, whose works played a significant role in the development of Kashmiri literature.
During the Ottoman Empire, Zakariyya al-Ansari (1515-1551 CE) was a prominent Ottoman scholar and theologian who served as the Shaykhulislam, the highest religious authority in the empire.
In more recent times, Zakariyya Ismail Oglu (1837-1920) was an Azerbaijani writer, playwright, and educator who made significant contributions to the development of Azerbaijani literature and education.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Zakariyya, highlighting its rich cultural and historical significance across various regions and time periods.
People
Zakariyya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zakariyya 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
Zakariyya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zakariyya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 252 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zakariyya 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 1,360,136 US residents.
Is Zakariyya a common name?
We classify Zakariyya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 254 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zakariyya most popular?
The single biggest year for Zakariyya was 2016, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zakariyya is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Zakariyya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zakariyya a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zakariyya 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 Zakariyya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zakariyya 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 Zakariyya 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How common is the name Zakariyya?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Zakariyya, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.