Zak
Zak was given to 12 boys in 2025, #7,177 among boys’ names; 1,608 Americans have been recorded with it since 1965 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,560 Americans named Zak and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 13 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zak by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zak mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zak is “Alternative form of Zach, a diminutive of the male given names Zachariah, Zacharias, and Zachary.”
/zæk/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zak?
#7,177 among boys’ names, 2025
Zak fell from #2,917 in 2015 to #7,177 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 21.4 to 7.0 per million.
50 babies in 2004, the peak
Zak peaked in 2004, when 50 boys were given it, #2,310 among boys’ names. The 12 births of 2025 are 24% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #7,177 | 7.0 |
| 2024 | 21 | #4,878 | 12.2 |
| 2023 | 29 | #3,874 | 17.0 |
| 2022 | 25 | #4,294 | 14.3 |
| 2021 | 39 | #3,118 | 22.3 |
| 2020 | 21 | #4,691 | 12.2 |
| 2019 | 32 | #3,565 | 17.8 |
| 2018 | 38 | #3,100 | 20.9 |
| 2017 | 39 | #3,068 | 21.1 |
| 2016 | 34 | #3,356 | 17.9 |
Every recorded year (61)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 41 | #2,917 | 21.4 |
| 2014 | 47 | #2,618 | 24.5 |
| 2013 | 48 | #2,559 | 25.4 |
| 2012 | 42 | #2,866 | 22.1 |
| 2011 | 43 | #2,795 | 22.6 |
| 2010 | 43 | #2,824 | 22.4 |
| 2009 | 50 | #2,556 | 25.2 |
| 2008 | 36 | #3,217 | 17.6 |
| 2007 | 50 | #2,532 | 24.1 |
| 2006 | 43 | #2,741 | 20.9 |
| 2005 | 43 | #2,607 | 21.5 |
| 2004 | 50 | #2,310 | 25.2 |
| 2003 | 46 | #2,343 | 23.3 |
| 2002 | 32 | #2,937 | 16.5 |
| 2001 | 27 | #3,313 | 13.9 |
| 2000 | 34 | #2,729 | 17.3 |
| 1999 | 23 | #3,473 | 12.0 |
| 1998 | 30 | #2,778 | 15.7 |
| 1997 | 18 | #3,871 | 9.5 |
| 1996 | 29 | #2,673 | 15.3 |
| 1995 | 28 | #2,678 | 14.7 |
| 1994 | 26 | #2,841 | 13.5 |
| 1993 | 39 | #2,083 | 19.9 |
| 1992 | 27 | #2,663 | 13.5 |
| 1991 | 33 | #2,220 | 16.3 |
| 1990 | 36 | #2,080 | 17.5 |
| 1989 | 26 | #2,538 | 13.0 |
| 1988 | 34 | #1,943 | 17.8 |
| 1987 | 19 | #2,832 | 10.2 |
| 1986 | 25 | #2,287 | 13.6 |
| 1985 | 17 | #2,938 | 9.2 |
| 1984 | 16 | #2,954 | 8.9 |
| 1983 | 14 | #3,227 | 7.8 |
| 1982 | 13 | #3,479 | 7.2 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,502 | 5.0 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,934 | 4.5 |
| 1979 | 10 | #4,064 | 5.8 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,764 | 3.7 |
| 1977 | 10 | #3,833 | 6.1 |
| 1976 | 15 | #2,823 | 9.6 |
| 1975 | 12 | #3,242 | 7.7 |
| 1974 | 15 | #2,671 | 9.5 |
| 1973 | 21 | #2,033 | 13.5 |
| 1972 | 18 | #2,242 | 11.1 |
| 1971 | 14 | #2,683 | 7.9 |
| 1970 | 18 | #2,211 | 9.7 |
| 1969 | 8 | #3,592 | 4.5 |
| 1968 | 7 | #3,670 | 4.0 |
| 1967 | 7 | #3,557 | 4.0 |
| 1966 | 6 | #3,944 | 3.4 |
| 1965 | 6 | #3,926 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Zak a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zak has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 61 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zak: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zak, and how old are they?
1,560 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,608 Americans ever recorded as Zak. The median Zak alive today is 22 years old; half are between 13 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 3,673 people named Zak (31 women and girls, 3,642 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,430 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 160 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 373 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 601 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 423 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Zak born?
The states with the most babies named Zak are California, Texas and New York, with 87% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Zak with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 12,745 babies since 1880, Zak is the second most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 12 of their 175 babies (6.9%), the third most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Zak
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Zak and names like it
- Compare Zak and ZackBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sZak peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zak since 1910.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Zak.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Zak alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.