Given name & surname
Zeus
“God”·“light”
Zeus is a masculine given name from Ancient Greek.
Original GreekΖευσ
Meaning & origin
What it means
As a biblical name, Zeus means “God” or “light.”
From biblical name research
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Greek.
How it developed
From Ancient Greek Ζεύς; its root is Proto-Indo-European *dyew-.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1973. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
In the Bible
In the Bible, the name Zeus appears in Acts 14:12, Acts 14:13, Acts 28:11.
- Acts 14:12
- Acts 14:13
- Acts 28:11
From biblical name research
Zeus through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 2,696
- 2,696 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2024
- 205 babies
- 2025
- 140
- #1,351 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +17%
- Rising
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 140 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 1,351 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 16.6% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. In 2025, California had the largest reported state-level birth count for boys with this name (27). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,628 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Zeus’s family of names
Zeus has a related form in Zeuc. Zeus has a related form in Zeuce. Zeus has a related form in Zeuse.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 8
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 4
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Zeus
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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