From Hebrew 'zebul' meaning exalted or honored dwelling; a son of Jacob in the Bible.
Zebulon is a name of ancient Hebrew origin, borne in the Book of Genesis by the tenth son of Jacob and Leah and the founder of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Its etymology has been debated by scholars for millennia — the Genesis text offers two folk etymologies, one connecting it to the Hebrew for "to honor" or "to exalt," another to a word meaning "to dwell." The tribe of Zebulon was associated with maritime trade in ancient Israel, occupying territory near the sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean coast, which gave the name early associations with seafaring and commerce.
In American history the name's most prominent bearer is Zebulon Pike, the Army officer and explorer who led an expedition into the southwestern territories in 1806-07, during which his party attempted to climb the peak in present-day Colorado that now bears his name — Pikes Peak. He never actually reached the summit, but the name attached itself permanently to that landmark and by extension to a spirit of ambitious, if sometimes unsuccessful, exploration. Pike's explorations of the Louisiana Purchase territory made him a minor hero of early American expansion.
Zebulon was reasonably common among devout Protestant families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Old Testament names were in vogue, but it has been rare for over a century. That rarity is now its strength. It has the biblical seriousness of Ezra or Ezekiel with a sound all its own — the opening Z gives it energy, the middle syllables sustain it, and the final -lon grounds it. Nickname options abound: Zeb, Zebu, Lon.