Zachary is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.
The first name Zachary is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #92 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Zachary, accounting for approximately 0.20 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 543,165 people – children, adults and seniors – named Zachary living in the United States, which is approximately 0.16 % of the entire population.
Zachary means ‘God remembers’ or ‘God remembers the Lord’. It is the English form of the Hebrew name Zechariah, which is composed of two elements: ‘Zachar’ meaning ‘to remember’ and ‘yah’ meaning ‘God’. The name appears in the Bible in the Old Testament. Zechariah was the name of a prophet, and the father of John the Baptist.
Pope Zachary... was the bishop of Rome from 741 to his death in 752. He is regarded as a skillful and subtle diplomat, and was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.
Zachary Taylor (1784 – 1850)
Taylor was a major general in the United States Army and considered a national hero for his victories in the Mexican-American War. These helped pave his way to the White House: He was the 12th president of the United States from 1849 to his death in 1850.
Zachary Quinto (*1977)
Science fiction is his genre: Quinto rose to prominence as the main antagonist in the tv series “Heroes” (2006 – 2010) and as Spock in the film “Star Trek” (2009) and its sequels. He has won and was nominated for numerous awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award.
Zachary Reynolds (1911 – 1932)
Reynolds was an American amateur aviator. Born into one of the richest families in the US, he could earn a pilot’s license at age 17. His biggest achievement was the longest point-to-point solo circumnavigation at the time, with 17,000 miles. He died under unsolved circumstances of a gunshot wound.
Zachary Donohue (*1991)
The American former ice dancer has had a successful career. He won two Winter Olympics medals, four World Championships medals, and is a three-time US national champion. In the 2018-2019 season, he was world number one with his partner Madison Hubbell.
When you hear the name Zachary, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Zachary? Are you also called Zachary? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is called Zachary. It was incorporated as a city in 1889 and has a population of about 20,000.
This was a real surprise! Zachary is a name that has been around for a long time, but only really took off at the end of the 20th century. According to our SmartGenius statistics, it reached its highest rank at #12 in the year 1994, when 25,191 parents chose this name for their newborn son. This made Zachary much more popular than in previous generations, where it was so rare for several years that it was not even recorded in the statistics. Now, this boys' name seems to have found its place and has established itself in the beginning of the 21st century as well.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Zachary was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
In 2022, Zachary ranked 166 in our SmartGenius statistics. In absolute figures, this means it was given to newborn boys a total of 2,245 times. No one knows what names (or combinations of numbers and letters) will be popular 50 years from now, but given its consistent popularity, there is a good chance that Zachary will remain a universally popular name.
Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Zachary. Because: There are men and boys named Zachary in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the nearly 50,000 different male first names that occur in the USA, just 386 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Zachary is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular male first names, for example in Utah, where Zachary ranks on position 34. The greatest chance of meeting Zachary, however, is in New Hampshire, where one in 163 boys and men bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 308 men and boys and in Mississippi, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 461 men and boys for their name before you once get Zachary as an answer.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter Z is quite rare as a first letter for boys' names: only 2.4% of all common boys' names in the US begin with Z. The most common first letters of boys' names, by the way, are J, A and D, while X, U and Q are the least common initials of boys' names.
With seven letters, the name Zachary has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
Therefore: As 2.4% of all boys' names begin with a Z, this initial letter is less common than the other letters on average. Interesting detail: of all the names that begin with Z, Zachary is the most common.
If your name is Zachary and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Zachary, you can simply say:
Zebra
Apple
Cat
Hat
Apple
Rocket
Yoyo
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Zachary
Zachary
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
Z
A
C
H
A
R
Y
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
Z
A
C
H
A
R
Y
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Zachary sounds like this:
