Cephus
A Greek male name derived from the word "kephale", meaning "rock" or "head".
Name Census estimates that about 433 living Americans carry the first name Cephus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cephus today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cephus births was 1922 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cephus. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Cephus is about 65 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Cephus' were born before 1971.
People living today
433
~ 1 in 791,580 Americans
Peak year
1922
30 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2007 SSA rank
#12,674
Tracked since 1888
Popularity
Cephus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cephus from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 173 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cephus by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cephus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cephus' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Cephus, while Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cephus
The name Cephus is derived from the Greek word "Kephas," which means "rock" or "stone." It is believed to have originated in ancient Greece and was later adopted by early Christian communities.
In the New Testament of the Bible, Cephus is mentioned as one of the names given to the apostle Peter by Jesus Christ. This is recorded in the Gospels of John and Galatians, where Jesus is said to have called Peter "Cephas," which is an Aramaic translation of the Greek "Petros," meaning "rock."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cephus is in the writings of the early Christian theologian Origen, who lived in the 3rd century AD. Origen referred to Peter as "Cephas" in his commentaries on the Gospels.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Cephus. One of the most famous was Cephus of Leptis Magna, a 6th-century Byzantine philosopher and mathematician who made significant contributions to the field of geometry.
Another prominent figure was Cephus the Martyr, a Christian saint who lived in the 3rd century AD and was martyred during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius.
In the 4th century, Cephus of Antioch was a renowned bishop and theologian who played a crucial role in the Arian controversy, a theological dispute over the nature of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
During the Middle Ages, Cephus of Constantinople was a Byzantine scholar and theologian who lived in the 11th century. He is known for his works on the interpretation of the Bible and the defense of Orthodox Christian doctrine.
In more recent times, Cephus Attucks (c. 1723 – March 5, 1770) was an American patriot of African and Native American descent who is widely regarded as the first person killed in the American Revolutionary War.
People
Cephus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cephus as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cephus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cephus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 433 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cephus going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 791,580 US residents.
Is Cephus a common name?
We classify Cephus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,009 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cephus most popular?
The single biggest year for Cephus was 1922, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cephus is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Cephus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cephus in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.