Zechariah
Masculine · “the Lord has remembered”
Zechariah is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 11,351 boys against 18 girls since 1880.
Zechariah is the spelling the King James translators gave to the Hebrew prophet, and it has stayed on the page ever since — five syllables that begin with a rare letter and land on an open vowel. It is long on paper and easy in the mouth, and it arrives with short forms already worn smooth by centuries of use.
How old is the name Zechariah?
Zechariah first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Zechariah alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 11,000 people named Zechariah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zechariah most popular?
Zechariah peaked in 2001, reaching #635 nationally. Today it ranks #855, 220 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Where it comes from
From Zekharyah to Zechariah
The story of Zechariah
The name belongs to Hebrew scripture, where it is carried by the prophet whose short book closes out the twelve, as well as by kings and priests. Greek-speaking translators rendered it Zacharias, which is how it reaches the Gospel of Luke as the name of John the Baptist's father, and through Latin it became the medieval European Zacharias and eventually the English Zachary. Zechariah, with the e and the -iah ending, is the Old Testament form as English Bibles print it, and it came into general use as a given name among English-speaking Protestants who named children straight from the text. The same figure appears in the Quran as Zakariyya, which is why close relatives of this name are in daily use from Spain to Indonesia.
Meaning
the Lord has remembered
From Hebrew Zekharyah, combining the verb zakhar, 'to remember', with Yah, a form of the divine name.
How the name formed
- Zekharyah
- Zacharias
- Zacharie
- Zachary
- Zechariah
Related forms: Zacharias · Zakariyya · Zacarías · Zaccaria · Zakhar · Zekharya
Pronouncing Zechariah
zek-uh-RY-uh
The ch is a hard k, never the sound in 'church'. Four syllables, stress on the third.
Nicknames for Zechariah
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
- 1971
- Most boys named
- 2015394 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #635reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- +8.4%285 in 2025, from 263
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.
Zechariah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zacharias in Greek — same name
- Zakariyya in Arabic — same name
- Zacarías in Spanish — same name
- Zaccaria in Italian — same name
- Zakhar in Russian — related form
- Zekharya in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Zechariahs among us
people named Zechariah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,993 born in 2025 was named Zechariah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Edwardo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zechariah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Edwardo climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Edwardo's path sketches the road Zechariah is walking now.
Zechariah 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 Zechariah is headed
Zechariah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Zechariah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zechariah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Comes with short forms that already exist independently — Zeke, Zach, Zac — so the child has formal and casual versions from day one.
- A biblical spelling with an unbroken written record, familiar to anyone who has read an English Old Testament.
- Close relatives are in ordinary use in Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Russian, which travels well.
- Long enough to be distinctive on a roster while remaining phonetic once the hard ch is known.
- Zachariah, with an a, is the more familiar spelling in the United States, so expect a lifetime of correcting one letter — and of hearing Zachary assumed instead.
- The ch trips people who have only seen the name written. Many will try a 'church' sound on the first attempt.
- Shortened to Zach or Zeke, the name blends into a crowd of Zacharys and Ezekiels. Families who want the full form used tend to have to insist on it early.
- Five syllables ask something of a short surname, and of a child learning to write their own name. Both settle.
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What they receive
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Zechariah
Masculine · #855 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zechariahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Zechariah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zechariah in 2025?
- Zechariah ranks #855 among US boy names in 2025, with 285 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zechariah?
- About 1 in every 5,993 US boys born in 2025 was named Zechariah — 285 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zechariah with classmates?
- Zechariah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zechariah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Santana#855 · Evren#857 · Jeremias#853 · Bear#853 · Avyaan#858 · Rex#859 · Ramon#850 · Eddie#860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zechariah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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