Zephan
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has hidden" or "watchman".
Name Census estimates that about 525 living Americans carry the first name Zephan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Zephan today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zephan births was 2007 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zephan. 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 Zephan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
525
~ 1 in 652,865 Americans
Peak year
2007
30 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,218
Tracked since 1989
Census
Zephan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 424 people with the first name Zephan, which placed it at #23,170 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
#23,170
National first-name rank
People counted
424
424 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zephan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zephan is White at 50.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Zephan 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 Zephan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.7% · 215
- Black or African American16.5% · 70
- Hispanic or Latino11.8% · 50
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.8% · 50
- Two or more races7.8% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 6
Popularity
Zephan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zephan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 195 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zephan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zephan 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 Zephan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zephans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Zephan
The name Zephan or Zephaniah is of Hebrew origin and dates back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew words "tsaphan" meaning "to hide or protect" and "Yah" which is a shortened form of the name of the Hebrew God Yahweh. Together, the name means "protected by God" or "hidden by the Lord."
This name appears in the Old Testament of the Bible as the name of one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, Zephaniah, who lived during the reign of King Josiah in the 7th century BC. The Book of Zephaniah is part of the Hebrew Bible and records the prophet's warnings about the coming judgment and destruction of Judah.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Zephan can be found in ancient Phoenician inscriptions dating back to the 9th century BC. It was a popular name among the Phoenicians and other Semitic cultures of the ancient Near East.
In the Middle Ages, the name Zephan was relatively uncommon but appeared occasionally in historical records. One notable figure was Zephaniah, a 12th-century Jewish philosopher and grammarian from Provence, France.
During the Renaissance period, the name experienced a slight revival, particularly among Protestant families who were inspired by the biblical associations. One example is Zephaniah Holwell, an English colonial administrator in India, who lived from 1711 to 1798.
In the 19th century, the name Zephan or Zephaniah became more widespread, especially among English-speaking families with religious connections. Notable individuals include Zephaniah Kingsley Jr., an American plantation owner and trader born in 1765, and Zephaniah Hollingsworth, an English Quaker minister born in 1828.
Another significant figure was Zephaniah Kingsley, an African American plantation owner and slave trader in Florida, who was born in 1765 and played a prominent role in the history of the American South.
While the name Zephan is relatively uncommon today, it has a rich historical legacy and continues to be used by some families drawn to its biblical and spiritual significance.
People
Zephan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zephan 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
Zephan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zephan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 525 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zephan 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 652,865 US residents.
Is Zephan a common name?
We classify Zephan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 531 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zephan most popular?
The single biggest year for Zephan was 2007, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zephan is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zephan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 424 people with the name Zephan, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,170 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 Zephan 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 Zephan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zephan leans strongly male. 418 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 5 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Zephan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zephan is White at 50.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Zephan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Zephan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.7% (215 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 Zephan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zephan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zephan 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 Zephan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zephan 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 Zephan 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 common is the name Zephan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.