Zacharias Family History

German, English, Greek, and Jewish; Czech (Zachariáš) and Slovak (Zachariaš and Zachariáš): from a Biblical personal name Greek Zacharias, Aramaic and Hebrew Zekharya, composed of the elements zekhar ‘to remember’ + ya ‘God’. This name was borne by a Biblical prophet and in the New Testament by the father of John the Baptist, for which reason it achieved a modest popularity among Gentiles during the Middle Ages.

As a surname in Britain, it originated mainly among Nonconformists in Wales and Cornwall in the 17th and 18th centuries. In North America, the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages, e.g., Italian Zaccaria, Polish Zachariasz, Slovenian Caharija, and their derivatives.

The name Zacharias is also found among Christians in southern India (compare Cherian, Zacharia, and Zachariah), but since South Indians traditionally do not have hereditary surnames, the southern Indian name was in most cases registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US.