Zachary
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord remembers".
Name Census estimates that about 536,589 living Americans carry the first name Zachary. It sits at #194 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zachary today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zachary births was 1993 (25,590 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zachary. 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 Zachary with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Zachary is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,529 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
537K
~ 1 in 639 Americans
Peak year
1993
25,590 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#194
Tracked since 1900
Census
Zachary in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 435,260 people with the first name Zachary, which placed it at #106 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#106
National first-name rank
People counted
435K
435,260 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
144.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zachary
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zachary is White at 83.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.1%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Zachary described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Zachary at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.9% · 365,155
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 26,734
- Two or more races4.6% · 20,008
- Black or African American3.2% · 14,112
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 6,857
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2,394
Gender
Gender distribution for Zachary
Out of the 551,618 babies given the name Zachary since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Zachary as a male name
- Ranked #194 in 2024
- 1,835 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (25,537 births)
Zachary as a female name
- Ranked #17,689 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1988 (105 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zachary appears almost entirely male. Of the 435,262 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Zachary: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zachary from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 225,747 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zachary 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 Zachary during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zacharys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Zachary, while Wyoming, Vermont, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10,758 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zachary
The given name Zachary originated from the Hebrew name Zechariah, which means "the Lord remembers" or "the Lord has remembered." It first appeared in the Old Testament, where it was the name of several minor Biblical figures, including a prophet and the father of John the Baptist.
The name Zechariah likely derived from the Hebrew words "zakar," meaning "to remember," and "Yah," a shortened form of the name of the Hebrew God, Yahweh. The Greek form of the name, Zacharias, was later Latinized to Zacharias or Zachary.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Zachary was Zachary of Mytilene, a Greek scholar and ecclesiastical historian who lived in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. He is known for his work on the history of the Church and for his correspondence with Severus of Antioch.
Another notable Zachary was Zachary the Scholastic, a Syrian monk and philosopher who lived in the 6th century. He was a prominent figure in the School of Alexandria and made significant contributions to the study of Aristotelian logic and philosophy.
In the 7th century, there was Zachary, a Pope of the Catholic Church who reigned from 741 to 752 AD. He is remembered for his efforts to strengthen the Church's authority and for his diplomatic relations with the Frankish rulers.
A more recent historical figure with the name Zachary was Zachary Taylor, an American military leader and the 12th President of the United States. He was born in 1784 and served as President from 1849 until his death in 1850.
Another famous Zachary was Zachary Macaulay, a British abolitionist and philanthropist who lived from 1768 to 1838. He played a significant role in the campaign to end the slave trade in the British Empire and was a prominent figure in the anti-slavery movement.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Zachary
People
Zachary + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zachary 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
Zachary: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zachary?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 536,589 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zachary 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 639 US residents.
Is Zachary a common name?
We classify Zachary as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 551,618 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zachary most popular?
The single biggest year for Zachary was 1993, when 25,590 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zachary is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zachary in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 435,260 people with the name Zachary, or 144.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #106 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Zachary in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Zachary?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zachary appears almost entirely male. Of the 435,262 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Zachary?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zachary is White at 83.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.1%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Zachary most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zachary in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.9% (365,155 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
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 Zachary in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zachary a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Zachary 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 Zachary still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zachary 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 Zachary 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.
How many people have the name Zachary?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.