Zeph
Variant of the Hebrew name Tzephanyahu meaning "Jehovah has treasured".
Name Census estimates that about 106 living Americans carry the first name Zeph. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zeph today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zeph births was 2001 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zeph. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Zeph with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
106
~ 1 in 3,233,531 Americans
Peak year
2001
11 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,285
Tracked since 1992
Census
Zeph in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 256 people with the first name Zeph, which placed it at #32,700 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#32,700
National first-name rank
People counted
256
256 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zeph
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zeph is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (12.1%) and Hispanic (11.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Zeph described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Zeph at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.7% · 163
- Black or African American12.1% · 31
- Hispanic or Latino11.3% · 29
- Two or more races6.6% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Zeph: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zeph from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 37 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zeph 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 Zeph during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zeph
The name Zeph is of Hebrew origin, derived from the biblical name Zephaniah, meaning "the Lord has hidden" or "the Lord conceals." This name can be traced back to the Old Testament, where it was borne by one of the minor prophets of the same name, Zephaniah, who lived during the reign of King Josiah in the 7th century BC.
The name Zeph is a shortened form of Zephaniah, which has been used as a given name throughout history. One of the earliest recorded examples of this name is found in the Book of Zephaniah in the Hebrew Bible, where the prophet Zephaniah delivers his prophecies and warnings to the people of Judah.
While not as common as some other biblical names, Zeph has been used as a given name by various individuals throughout history. One notable bearer of this name was Zeph Stewart, an American baseball player who played for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers in the early 20th century, born in 1886 and died in 1973.
Another historical figure with the name Zeph was Zeph A. Converse, an American politician and lawyer who served as the 17th Lieutenant Governor of Vermont from 1876 to 1878. He was born in 1820 and died in 1889.
In literature, Zeph appears as a character in the novel "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, published in 1939. Zeph is the name of one of the protagonists, a former preacher who joins the Joad family on their journey to California during the Great Depression.
Another notable bearer of the name Zeph was Zeph Camarillo, a Mexican-American businessman and landowner in 19th century California. He was born in 1835 and died in 1904, and the city of Camarillo, California, is named after him and his family.
Finally, Zeph Tuggle was an American football player who played as a linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins in the National Football League (NFL) from 1983 to 1993. He was born in 1959 and was known for his defensive prowess on the field.
While not a common name in modern times, Zeph has a rich historical and biblical background, with its origins rooted in the Hebrew language and the Old Testament. Its use as a given name has spanned various cultures and time periods, with notable bearers in fields such as sports, politics, literature, and business.
People
Zeph + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zeph as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zeph: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zeph?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 106 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zeph 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 3,233,531 US residents.
Is Zeph a common name?
We classify Zeph as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 107 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zeph most popular?
The single biggest year for Zeph was 2001, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zeph is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zeph in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 256 people with the name Zeph, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,700 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Zeph in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Zeph?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zeph leans strongly male. 255 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 9 female bearers (3.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Zeph?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zeph is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (12.1%) and Hispanic (11.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Zeph most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zeph in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.7% (163 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Zeph in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zeph a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zeph 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.
Is Zeph still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zeph in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Zeph can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people have the name Zeph?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Zeph, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.