Zacharias
A biblical surname from the Hebrew personal name meaning “the Lord has remembered.”
The #8,641 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 81,142 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Zacharias comes from the biblical male given name Zechariah/Zacharias, ultimately from Hebrew Zeḵaryāh, meaning “Yahweh has remembered” or “the Lord has remembered.” The name passed into Greek and Latin Christian tradition as Zacharias, which is the form reflected in many European languages and surnames. As a surname, it is usually a family-name formation from an ancestor’s given name rather than a word meaning anything on its own.
History
The name was widely used in Christian Europe because of the biblical and New Testament figures named Zacharias/Zechariah, including the father of John the Baptist. In German-speaking areas it also appears in surname lists and as a related form alongside shorter or regional variants. In English-speaking countries the surname is less common and is often associated with families of Continental, Jewish, or Eastern Christian background.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Hebrew root behind Zacharias also lies behind the biblical name Zechariah, so the surname and the common given name are close cousins rather than unrelated names.
From the historical record
“Mary Zacharias David Sarah”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom