Efraim
Masculine · “doubly fruitful”
Efraim is Ephraim — doubly fruitful — and Joseph names him for prospering in a country not his own.
How old is the name Efraim?
Efraim first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Efraim alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 1,800 people named Efraim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Efraim most popular?
Efraim peaked in 1972, reaching #1871 nationally. Today it ranks #2572, 701 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From parah to Efraim
The story of Efraim
Joseph names his second Egyptian-born son Ephraim because God has made him fruitful in the land of his suffering — a name that holds both facts at once. The tribe of Ephraim became the largest of the northern kingdom, so much so that the whole north is sometimes called Ephraim. It is in current American use.
Meaning
doubly fruitful
From the Hebrew Efrayim, from parah, 'to be fruitful', in a dual form. Genesis has Joseph say God has made him fruitful in the land of his affliction. Efraim is the Scandinavian, Spanish and Hebrew spelling. The Hebrew is documented.
How the name formed
- parah
- Efrayim
- Efraim
Related forms: אפרים · Ephraim · Efraín
Pronouncing Efraim
EF-ry-im
Three syllables, stress on the first. Hebrew stresses the last, ef-ra-YIM.
Nicknames for Efraim
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
- 1920
- Most boys named
- 202365 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1871reached in 1972
- Change vs 2023
- −21.5%51 in 2025, from 65
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.
Efraim in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אפרים in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ephraim in English — spelling variant
- Efraín in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey.
Efraims among us
people named Efraim are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 33,492 born in 2025 was named Efraim
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Efraim
- #2572
- Efraim on the 2025 chart
- #649
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Efraim went to 51 boys in 2025, but Ephraim and Efrayim are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 292, which makes it the 649th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,923 places above the chart.
- Ephraim231
- Efraim51
- Efrayim10
About 1 boy in 5,850 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 33,492 for Efraim itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Cirilo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Efraim's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cirilo climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cirilo's path sketches the road Efraim is walking now.
Efraim 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
Where Efraim is headed
Efraim should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Efraim beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Efraim in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That the name holds both fruitfulness and affliction is a first-rate detail.
- That a whole kingdom came to be called by the tribe's name is a genuinely good fact.
- Efi is a warm and widely used Israeli short form.
- Ephraim is the standard English spelling.
- Hebrew and English stress it differently.
- It reads as strongly biblical.
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Efraim
Masculine · #2572 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Efraims are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Efraim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Efraim?
- Efraim is one of 3 recorded spellings. Ephraim is the more common one — 231 births in 2025 against 51 for Efraim.
- How popular is the name Efraim in 2025?
- Efraim ranks #2572 among US boy names in 2025, with 51 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Efraim?
- About 1 in every 33,492 US boys born in 2025 was named Efraim — 51 in all.
- Will my child share the name Efraim with classmates?
- Efraim will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Efraim
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ripp#2572 · Parth#2572 · Willem#2572 · Duane#2572 · Nikolaos#2572 · Nicolai#2572 · Zair#2572 · Stryker#2572
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Efraim? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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