Ephraim
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “Fruitful”
Ephraim comes out of the Hebrew Bible, where it belongs to Joseph's younger son and then to one of the tribes of Israel — a name for fruitfulness spoken in Egypt. English speakers took it up seriously with the Puritans of the seventeenth century, who carried it across the Atlantic and used it steadily in New England for generations. It has three syllables that fall away softly at the end, and it has never entirely left American records since records began.
How old is the name Ephraim?
Ephraim was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ephraim alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 6,900 people named Ephraim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ephraim most popular?
Ephraim peaked in 1880, reaching #403 nationally. Today it ranks #988, 585 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Ephraim appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Efrayim (Hebrew) to Ephraim
The story of Ephraim
The name is Hebrew, and it enters the record in Genesis as the second son born to Joseph in Egypt, whose descendants became one of the tribes of Israel; in the prophets, Ephraim also stands in for the whole northern kingdom. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible wrote it Ephraim, and that spelling — with the ph — is the one Latin and then English inherited. In the fourth century the Syriac form belonged to Ephrem of Nisibis, a deacon and hymn-writer still commemorated across the Eastern churches. English use took hold with the Puritans, who favored Old Testament names, and it traveled with them to colonial America, where it stayed in family use long after the fashion that introduced it had passed.
Meaning
Fruitful; doubly fruitful
The Hebrew form Efrayim is built on the root meaning to be fruitful, and its ending is a dual, which is why the traditional gloss is doubled: "twice fruitful" or "fruitful land". Genesis attaches the name to Joseph's words about being made fruitful in the land of his affliction.
How the name formed
- EfrayimHebrew
- EphraimGreek Septuagint
- EphraimLatin, English
- EfraínSpanish
Related forms: Efrayim · Efraín · Efraim · Efrem · Aphrem · Froim
Pronouncing Ephraim
EE-free-um
EE-free-um is the usual American reading. You will also hear EF-rum and EE-fraym, the latter closer to the Hebrew, so expect to state your preference more than once.
Nicknames for Ephraim
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2016254 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #403reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +14.4%231 in 2025, from 202
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.
Ephraim in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Efrayim in Hebrew — transliteration
- Efraín in Spanish — same name
- Efraim in Swedish / Norwegian / Dutch — spelling variant
- Efrem in Russian — related form
- Aphrem in Syriac / Aramaic — related form
- Froim in Yiddish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Ephraims among us
people named Ephraim are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 7,394 born in 2025 was named Ephraim
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ephraim
- #988
- Ephraim on the 2025 chart
- #649
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ephraim went to 231 boys in 2025, but Efraim 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 — 339 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 7,394 for Ephraim 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
Fashion outlook
Ephraim 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 Ephraim is headed
Ephraim should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Ephraim beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ephraim in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An unbroken written record of more than two thousand years, from the Hebrew Bible through Greek and Latin into English.
- Recognizable in Spanish, Scandinavian, Russian and Hebrew-speaking families through Efraín, Efraim, Efrem and Efrayim.
- Present in American records for as long as such records have been kept, without ever becoming a crowded name.
- Has a ready-made short form, Eph, that has been used alongside it for centuries.
- The ph invites both misspelling and mispronunciation: Ephriam, with the letters swapped, is an especially common slip, and strangers may reach for EF-rum when you say EE-free-um.
- It reads clearly as an Old Testament name. For some families that is the point; for others it carries more religious signal than they want on a form or a résumé.
- A child named Ephraim will most likely be the only one in the class, which means never sharing but also always explaining.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Ephraim
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #988 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ephraims are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,900 people named Ephraim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ephraim?
- Ephraim is the most-used spelling in US records — 231 of the 292 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Efraim and Efrayim.
- How popular is the name Ephraim in 2025?
- Ephraim ranks #988 among US boy names in 2025, with 231 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ephraim?
- About 1 in every 7,394 US boys born in 2025 was named Ephraim — 231 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ephraim with classmates?
- Ephraim will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ephraim
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Isael#988 · Jiraiya#988 · Aurelius#991 · Blaine#991 · Joe#991 · Harold#991 · Palmer#991 · Joan#984
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ephraim? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ephraim and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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