Zachary
A surname from the biblical given name Zachary, meaning “the Lord has remembered.”
The #5,198 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 45,917 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Zachary comes from the biblical personal name Zachary, a variant form of Zachariah/Zechariah. The Hebrew name is usually explained as meaning “the Lord has remembered,” from elements meaning “to remember” plus Yah, a short form of Jehovah. As a surname, it is best understood as a patronymic: originally identifying someone as the son or family of a man named Zachary.
History
The name entered English through biblical and Christian usage, where Zachary and Zachariah were used as given names. English surname evidence shows it in use by the early modern period, and the form is also found in related spellings such as Zachrie and Zachary. It appears in Britain and later in American records as a relatively uncommon surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries often treated Zachary as simply the English form of the biblical name Zachariah rather than a separate family name.
From the historical record
“^ACH, a dim. of Zachary, Zachariah, q.v. ZACHARIAH \ (Heb.) The Lord hath Re- ZACHARY J membered [Heb. Z'Marydh ; f. zdkhar, to remember, and Yah, Jehovah] ZEAL 1 (Eng.) Bel. to Zeal (Devon), a voiced ZEALL 1 (West-Country) form of Seal, q,v. ZEALEY (Eng.) a voiced (West-Country) form of Sealey, Seeley, qvA…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)