Nephi
Masculine
Nephi is a name with a known first appearance. It did not exist in any record before 1830, when the Book of Mormon was published, and its American use is concentrated so tightly in Utah and Idaho that the data reads less like a name than like a map.
How old is the name Nephi?
Nephi first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Nephi alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 700 people named Nephi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nephi most popular?
Nephi peaked in 1974, reaching #2277 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 7,437 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Nephi
Almost every name in use has a long tail of earlier bearers running back beyond any record. Nephi has none. The Book of Mormon appeared in Palmyra, New York, in March 1830, and the name is taken from its text; the earliest people to carry it were born within a few years of that publication. In 1851 Latter-day Saint settlers founded a town in Juab County, Utah, and called it Nephi, so the name also became a place, and the place then named more children. The result is a name whose entire history is documented and whose geography can be drawn: it appears in the national data as a small, steady stream, and it is a common, unremarkable name inside one region and an unfamiliar one everywhere else. Very few names allow that much precision about where they came from.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Nephi is the name of a prophet and narrator in the Book of Mormon. No pre-1830 source contains it; proposed connections to Egyptian nfr, meaning good or beautiful, and to a Greek name in an apocryphal passage of 2 Maccabees have been argued within Latter-day Saint scholarship and are not established outside it. The honest position is that the name enters the record with the book.
Pronouncing Nephi
NEE-fye
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second rhyming with high. The ph is an f, following the Greek convention English inherited.
Nicknames for Nephi
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 200726 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2277reached in 1974
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%7 in 2025, from 7
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.
Nephi in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Utah.
Nephis among us
people named Nephi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Nephi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Carlson test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nephi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carlson climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carlson's path sketches the road Nephi is walking now.
Nephi 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
Nephi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nephi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The origin is precisely documented, which almost no name can claim.
- Two syllables, five letters, and unambiguous once heard.
- It is entirely familiar within the Intermountain West.
- Outside Utah and Idaho it will usually need to be explained.
- It carries a clear religious identification.
- The spelling suggests NEFF-ee to first-time readers.
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Nephi
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nephis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Nephi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nephi in 2025?
- Nephi ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nephi?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Nephi — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nephi with classmates?
- Nephi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nephi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nephi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nephi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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