An ossuary inscribed “Zaki Zeira”=  “Zaki the little one” or Zaki son of Zeira.

The Hebrew name Zaki derives from the word zakh (זך), meaning “pure.” The name is also attested on a jar inscription from Masada (1st century CE).

Zeira / Ze‘ira (זעירא) in Aramaic literally means small, tiny, or little one.  In later rabbinic times (the Tannaitic period), a sage named Rabbi Zeira became well-known.

The name Zaki also appears in the New Testament, in the Gospel of Luke 19:2, as that of a wealthy tax collector of short stature who encountered Jesus in Jericho. Following this meeting, he pledged to donate half of his wealth to the poor. In the Greek New Testament his name appears as: Ζακχαῖος = Zacchaeus = Za-Kee-Us. In the Hebrew New Testament he is called simply “Zaki.”