His Name

According to Behind the Name.com, the name Zack is a shortened version of Zachary or Isaac. The name Isaac means "he who laughs" and is Hebrew in origin. Zachary is actually the English version of the name Zechariah. Zechariah is also Hebrew in origin and means "Yahweh remembers" (Yahweh being the name of the Hebrew god in bible times).

In the bible, Isaac was the only son of Abraham and Sarah, born to them in their later years. Sarah was thought to be barren and so, when three angels came to tell her she would be giving birth to a son, she laughed. That was why Isaac was named after laughter. Abraham, Isaac’s father, is often regarded as the father of the nation of Israel, and the name Israel came from Isaac’s younger son, Jacob. Jacob wrestled with God, and God gave him the name of Israel.

Zechariah, in the bible, was a minor prophet in Old Testament times, the author of the book of Zechariah. Zechariah was also the name of the father of John the Baptist (and his mother shared a name with me! HA!). An angel came to Zechariah to tell him that he would be the father of the predecessor to Christ. His wife Elizabeth was also thought to be barren and he also didn’t believe the angels. He was made mute until the baby was born for his disbelief.

The main connection I get from these stories is the barren woman giving birth to a son and someone getting in trouble because they didn’t have enough faith. There are many examples of the latter going on around Zack, though that’s likely because I like to read things into situations that really don’t have any reason to be there. Though, perhaps if Cloud had had more faith in his own abilities, Hojo and Jenova would not have been able to manipulate him as easily. And if Sephiroth had had more faith in his own humanity, he perhaps would not have questioned it and been driven insane by that question.

Then again, I think way too much than is healthy for the average person (if you couldn’t tell by the gazillion essays on this site), so I’m probably just over speculating here. Though it is true that many of the names in Final Fantasy 7 do have a special meaning. It could be that Zack is one of them. You never know with this game.

Then again, there is also the issue of the Japanese pronunciation of Zack’s name. It’s made out of the syllables za - kku - su. A common romanization of "zakkusu" is Zax. I’m not sure why they changed it to Zack in the American version of the game, or if it was meant to be Zack in the first place and someone just screwed it up. I’m inclined to believe otherwise, as every supposed mistake I’ve found within Final Fantasy 7 thus far can be explained away.

I’ll look into this, but until someone alerts me otherwise, this essay gets to stay the same. Behind the Name couldn’t find "Zax".

<< home