Zarius
A masculine name of Persian origin meaning "having golden hair".
Name Census estimates that about 316 living Americans carry the first name Zarius. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zarius today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zarius births was 2004 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zarius. 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.
People living today
316
~ 1 in 1,084,666 Americans
Peak year
2004
18 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,203
Tracked since 1991
Census
Zarius in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 240 people with the first name Zarius, which placed it at #34,133 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
#34,133
National first-name rank
People counted
240
240 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
63.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zarius
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zarius is Black at 63.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.3%) and Two or More Races (11.3%). 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 Zarius 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 Zarius at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American63.8% · 153
- Hispanic or Latino11.3% · 27
- Two or more races11.3% · 27
- White8.3% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 5
Popularity
Zarius: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zarius from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 132 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Zarius remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zarius 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 Zarius during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zarius' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Zarius
The name Zarius has its roots in the ancient Persian language, originating during the Achaemenid Empire which ruled over vast territories in the Middle East and Central Asia from 550 to 330 BCE. The name is derived from the old Persian word "zar," meaning gold or golden, and is believed to have been initially used to refer to someone with golden hair or a golden complexion.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Zarius can be found in the Behistun Inscription, a monumental rock relief carved in the 5th century BCE under the reign of King Darius the Great. This inscription, which recounts Darius's ascension to the throne, mentions a nobleman named Zarius who was a member of the king's court.
In ancient Greek texts, the name appears as "Zarios" or "Zareios," and it is mentioned in the writings of historians such as Herodotus and Plutarch. These authors describe Zarius as a Persian military commander who fought alongside King Xerxes I during the Greco-Persian Wars in the 5th century BCE.
During the medieval period, the name Zarius gained popularity among the Persian nobility and ruling classes. One notable figure was Zarius al-Tabari, a 9th-century Persian historian and scholar who authored the monumental work "History of the Prophets and Kings," which chronicles the history of the world from the creation until the 10th century.
In the Renaissance era, the name Zarius resurfaced in Europe, particularly in Italy and France. One prominent individual was Zarius Borghese (1516-1573), an Italian cardinal and patron of the arts who was a member of the powerful Borghese family and played a significant role in the Catholic Reformation.
Other notable figures bearing the name Zarius include Zarius Valdes (1765-1835), a Spanish military officer and statesman who served as the first President of Panama; Zarius Naumann (1837-1888), a German composer and music teacher; and Zarius Kaczmarczyk (1906-1977), a Polish chess grandmaster and author.
Throughout its long history, the name Zarius has maintained its association with nobility, wealth, and military prowess, reflecting its golden origins in the ancient Persian empire.
People
Zarius + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zarius 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
Zarius: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zarius?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 316 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zarius 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 1,084,666 US residents.
Is Zarius a common name?
We classify Zarius as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 320 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zarius most popular?
The single biggest year for Zarius was 2004, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zarius is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zarius in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 240 people with the name Zarius, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,133 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 Zarius 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 Zarius?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zarius appears almost entirely male. Of the 237 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Zarius?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zarius is Black at 63.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.3%) and Two or More Races (11.3%). 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 Zarius most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Zarius in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.8% (153 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 Zarius in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zarius a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zarius 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 Zarius still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zarius 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 Zarius 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 share the name Zarius?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.