Cephas
Masculine · “rock”
Cephas is a nickname that stuck. In the Gospels Jesus looks at a fisherman called Simon and calls him Kepha, the Aramaic word for a rock; Greek translated that as Petros, and English got Peter. Cephas is the original, and Paul uses it in his letters as the man's ordinary name.
How old is the name Cephas?
Cephas first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Cephas alive today was born around 1947, making them about 78 years old. About 500 people named Cephas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cephas most popular?
Cephas peaked in 1898, reaching #1002 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 4,043 places below that high. See the whole 1898 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kepha to Cephas
The story of Cephas
Paul's letters call him Cephas more often than Peter, which suggests the Aramaic form was what people around him actually used. English-speaking Protestants took the name up after the Reformation, when the whole New Testament became a naming source, and it was given steadily in Britain and America through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; it is common in the records of Ghana and Nigeria too, where mission naming took it up. It has been rare in the United States for a century.
Meaning
rock; stone
Aramaic kepha, a rock or stone, transliterated into Greek as Kephas. Peter is the same word translated rather than transliterated, which is why the two names mean exactly the same thing and look nothing alike.
How the name formed
- kepha
- Kephas
- Cephas
Related forms: Κηφᾶς · Peter · Cefas
Pronouncing Cephas
SEE-fus
Two syllables, stress in front. The c is soft and the ph is an f; nothing in it is difficult once that is known.
Nicknames for Cephas
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1898
- Most boys named
- 192123 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1002reached in 1898
- Change vs 2023
- +46.2%19 in 2025, from 13
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cephas in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Κηφᾶς in Greek — transliteration
- Peter in English — related form
- Cefas in Spanish — same name
Cephass among us
people named Cephas are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Cephas
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Cephas sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Cephas beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cephas in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single concrete word and is explained inside the text it comes from.
- It is biblical without being one of the biblical names in heavy use.
- It is the same name as Peter, which almost nobody realizes.
- The ph and soft c together make the spelling hard to guess from hearing.
- It is rare enough now that it will be spelled out at every introduction.
- It reads as distinctly nineteenth-century in American use.
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Cephas
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cephass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Cephas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cephas in 2025?
- Cephas ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cephas?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Cephas — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cephas with classmates?
- Cephas will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cephas
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cephas? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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