Zakari
Masculine · “the Lord has remembered”
Zakari is given to both — 2,472 boys and 257 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Zakari is one of the many roads out of Hebrew Zekharyah, the name of a prophet whose short book closes out the Hebrew Bible and of the priest who fathers John the Baptist in Luke. The same name traveled into Arabic as Zakariyya and is honored in the Quran, and it is that branch — not the Latin one that gave English Zachary — whose rhythm you hear here. Three syllables, all light, ending on the same open vowel as Ali and Malachi.
How old is the name Zakari?
Zakari first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Zakari is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,400 people named Zakari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zakari most popular?
Zakari peaked in 2023, reaching #1024 nationally. Today it ranks #1060, 36 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Zakari appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Zekharyah to Zakari
The story of Zakari
The oldest form, Zekharyah, belonged to a prophet of the sixth century BCE and to more than two dozen other men across the Hebrew scriptures — it was an ordinary name in its own time. Greek translators rendered it Zacharias, Latin carried it into medieval Europe, and Arabic took it up as Zakariyya, where it names one of the prophets of the Quran. Zakari is the trimmed form of that Arabic branch, and it is well established in Hausa-speaking West Africa, in Niger and northern Nigeria and Ghana, where the final vowel drops away. In the United States it is a recent arrival, most at home in Texas, Florida and Georgia, and still carried almost entirely by children and young people.
Meaning
the Lord has remembered
From Hebrew Zekharyah, combining the verb "to remember" with a form of the divine name. The reading is the same whether the name arrives through the Hebrew, Greek, Arabic or English line.
How the name formed
- Zekharyah
- Zacharias
- Zakariyya
- Zakari
Related forms: Zakariyya · Zachary · Zechariah · Zacharie · Zakhar · Zakaria
Pronouncing Zakari
zah-KAR-ee
Two patterns are both in real use: zah-KAR-ee, following the Arabic and West African form, and ZAK-uh-ree, which American ears default to because it matches Zachary. Whichever you choose, expect to state it more than once.
Nicknames for Zakari
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1986
- Most boys named
- 2023213 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1024reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- +4.0%206 in 2025, from 198
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Zakari in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zakariyya in Arabic — same name
- Zachary in English — related form
- Zechariah in Hebrew — same name
- Zacharie in French — related form
- Zakhar in Russian — related form
- Zakaria in Swahili — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Georgia.
Zakaris among us
people named Zakari are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 8,292 born in 2025 was named Zakari
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zakari
- #1060
- Zakari on the 2025 chart
- #526
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zakari went to 206 boys in 2025, but Zackary, Zacari and Zakhari and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 462, which makes it the 526th most-given boys’ name of the year — 534 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 3,697 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,292 for Zakari itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sahil test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zakari's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sahil climbed just as high around 2001, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sahil's path sketches the road Zakari is walking now.
Zakari sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Zakari is headed
Zakari should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Zakari beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zakari in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sits beside a name almost everyone already knows — Zachary — so the sound is instantly placeable even when the spelling is not.
- Comes with a ready-made short form, Zak, that needs no explanation anywhere in the English-speaking world.
- Works across Hebrew, Arabic, Swahili and West African naming traditions, with a recognizable cousin in each.
- A documented line running back more than two and a half thousand years, without ever having been a fashion name.
- The spelling will be corrected at you for life: Zachary, Zachari, Zakaria and Zakariya are all in circulation, and forms will often come back with one of those instead.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled between zah-KAR-ee and ZAK-uh-ree. Worth deciding which one your family uses before the first day of school, since both are defensible.
- In American records this is a boys' name, but the -i ending leads some readers to assume otherwise on paper, particularly on forms and rosters seen without a face.
- He is unlikely to meet another Zakari growing up — good if you want that, worth knowing if you would rather he never had to explain the name at all.
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What they receive
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Zakari
Masculine · #1060 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zakaris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Zakari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zakari?
- Zakari is the most-used spelling in US records — 206 of the 462 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Zackary, Zacari, Zakhari, Zakary, Zakarri and Zakarii.
- How popular is the name Zakari in 2025?
- Zakari ranks #1060 among US boy names in 2025, with 206 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zakari?
- About 1 in every 8,292 US boys born in 2025 was named Zakari — 206 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zakari with classmates?
- Zakari will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zakari
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nixon#1060 · Henrik#1060 · Alaric#1063 · Rishi#1056 · Neo#1064 · Dash#1056 · Ismail#1064 · Ollie#1056
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zakari? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zakari and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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