Zacchaeus comes from Hebrew via Greek, meaning pure or innocent.
Zacchaeus carries one of the most vivid single scenes in the New Testament: in the Gospel of Luke, a wealthy but despised chief tax collector, too short to see above the crowd, climbs a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus passing through Jericho — and is called down by name, hosted for dinner, and transformed, vowing to repay fourfold anyone he has wronged. ').
The name itself derives from the Hebrew Zaccai or Zakkai, a shortened form of Zechariah, meaning 'pure,' 'clean,' or 'the Lord has remembered' — a meaning the New Testament story dramatizes with considerable irony and tenderness. Outside of its biblical fame, Zacchaeus has remained a genuinely rare name in English-speaking countries, used almost exclusively in devout Christian households where biblical names are a strong tradition. Its length — four syllables — and its unusual double-a spelling have kept it from the mainstream, though the abbreviated forms Zach and Zac connect it easily to the far more common Zachary.
In an era when parents are reaching back toward ancient, meaningful names — Ezekiel, Bartholomew, Thaddeus — Zacchaeus has begun to attract fresh attention as a name with both scriptural depth and an irresistible narrative attached to it. The image of a small man in a tall tree, willing to look foolish for something he needed to see, gives the name a peculiar human charm that no amount of time can diminish.