Z is for Zakarias

thanks for reading this month
today is the end of April and so we reach the letter Z

It has been a crazy busy week and I am a bit behind (will get those last two up soon) but today is the last day of April and the last day of the #AtoZChallenge. Today is all about Z which is for Zakarias. We have 2 males in our family tree named Zakarias although I did notice that the spelling is shown as Zakarias, Zacharias and Sakarias, depending on the record. Since this given name belongs to my Norwegian 4th great grandfather Zakarias Pedersen, his 4 daughters and 3 sons carried on the name as their surname (got to love patronymics!) as Zakariasdattter and Zakariasen. My 3rd great grandmother gave her surname as a given name to her first son (so it made the full circle) as Zakarias.

Zakarias (or more commonly Zacharias) is the Greek form of Zechariah, meaning "Yahweh remembers." Those familiar with the New Testament will know that Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist. Variations on the name are Zacharia (Arabic), Zahari (Bulgarian), Sakari (Finnish) and Zekeriya (Turkish). To learn more about the name Zecharaih or Zakarias check out Behind the Name. And if you have not done so yet, why not check out Behind the Name for your own given name (and then add that interesting bit to your own family history). I could not find the name listed as used in either Norwegian or Swedish. In light of the Finnish spelling of the name, I am wondering if there is a Finnish connection for this family back in the 1700s. Something to add to my research to-do list.

Thanks so much for following along with me during April's #AtoZChallenge. I hope you have enjoying learning a bit about the given names in the Scandinavian and Slovenian branches of my family tree.

On behalf of my Norwegian and Swedish ancestors - Skål
and on behalf of my Slovenian ancestors - Na zdravje

Z is for Zakarias