Zachary
Meaning
“God remembers”
Goes by Zac, Zach
The story
Zachary is the English form of Zacharias, ultimately from the Hebrew Zekharyah, Yahweh remembers. The biblical name belongs to several figures, including the father of John the Baptist in the New Testament, and English Protestants renewed it after the Reformation. American parents, however, made Zachary a distinctly late twentieth-century favorite. The curve is nearly flat through the 1960s, first moves in the 1970s, climbs sharply in the 1980s, peaks in the 1990s, and then eases from the 2000s onward. Zach and Zack gave the formal biblical name a casual everyday shape, which helped it fit the era without losing its roots. The decline since the peak is real but not a disappearance. Zachary now sits where many former top names settle: familiar to everyone, tied to a generation, and still fully usable.
Zachary's name family
One shared root links 7 names in English.
Shared root: from Hebrew Zekharyah "Yahweh has remembered"
The family
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Zachary peaked in the 1990s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
29 people · the #96,655 first name in Brazil · median age 30
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
How the spellings raced
Across these spellings, Zachary led in the group’s busiest decade, the 1990s. So far in the 2020s, Zachary leads.
Decade totals from US Social Security birth registrations. Every line uses the same scale. The 2020s covers 2020–2025.
When you meet Zachary
Most people given the name Zachary in the United States were born between 1990 and 2009. The Zachary you meet today is most often in his 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Zachary deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Zachary truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Zachary fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Does Zachary fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Zachary to your family’s tree →