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Zak

#7,177 in 2025Boys' name

Short form of Zachary

Zak has been given to 1,608 babies in the U.S. since 1965. In 2025 it ranked #7,177 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2004, with 50 recorded.

Babies named Zak, 2025

1 in 276,000

Zak over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zak: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Zachary

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Zak means

Zak is a short form of Zachary.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Zak → Zachary → Zacharias. The family’s meaning is “Yahweh has remembered”, recorded in English with the source elements Zəḵaryā.

Origin, language, and formation

Zak is used in English and Slovene.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Zachary and Zachariah.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Zak is pronounced /zæk/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,608 boys were recorded with the name Zak between 1965 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 50 in 2004; its best national rank was #1,943 in 1988.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,691 in 2020 to #7,177 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,917 in 2015 to #7,177 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Zak?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 276,000
12 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 142,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,177
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Zak sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zak. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zaks were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zak was born before 2004 — so the typical Zak is around 21 today.

Median birth year
2004
About 21 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
25.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
57.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,608
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 25.6% of all recorded uses (411).

Is Zak rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,299
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,486
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−4,260
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.29×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
24.0%
Peak was 2004 (50)
Years since peak
21
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,943
1988

Where Zak is used

Across 1910–2025, Zak was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 330,548 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Utah1 in 100,000
  3. 3Florida1 in —
  4. 4Illinois1 in —
  5. 5New York1 in —
  6. 6Ohio1 in —
  7. 7Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Zak has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Zak around the world

Where Zak ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #611
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1987–2025
    #243
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2024
    #256
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    1993–2025
    #676
    in 2025
  • France
    2000–2025
    #2,567
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1992–2024
    #1,105
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1971–2013
    #202
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Zak by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,177
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,486
Best rank ever
#1,943
1988
Peak year
2004
50 that year
First recorded
1965
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,608
Count in 2025
12

Names similar to Zak

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ZakiIzakZakaiZakirZakeeZakariZakhiZakkZakaryZakariaZakeryZakyeZakiahZakarZakariyaZakariahZakhariZakhaiZakkaryZakryZakkaiZakharZakariyeZakani

Sibling names for Zak

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Zak

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