The story in the numbers

550,089 boys have been named Zachary in the United States since 1900, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1993, with 25,537 births — 1.3% of all boys recorded that year.

It is falling: its share of births is 60% or less of what it was ten years ago (rank 82 → 194).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1996, and the 1990s alone account for 41%. It has spent 79 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 41 of them in the top 100.

It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,529 girls have also been given it, 0.28% of the total.

Rank among boys, year by year

By decade

Decade

boys named Zachary

109

168

142

404

2,170

3,479

19,068

101,830

225,280

134,755

51,138

11,540

In 1993, its biggest year

Zachary was the 15th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1993 were Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua and Tyler. See all of 1993.

Names that rose and fell with Zachary

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.