Zelpha
Feminine
Zelpha is a biblical name that most people have never heard, belonging to a woman the text mentions and does not describe. She is given away, she bears two sons, and two of the twelve tribes of Israel descend from her — and the narrative never once records anything she said.
How old is the name Zelpha?
Zelpha first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Zelpha alive today was born around 1919, making them about 106 years old. About 100 people named Zelpha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zelpha most popular?
Zelpha peaked in 1891, reaching #750 nationally. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Hebrew name of uncertain derivation appears in Genesis to Zelpha
The story of Zelpha
The story is short and hard. Zilpah is a servant in Laban's household, given to Leah at her marriage and then handed by Leah to Jacob when Leah stops bearing children — a transaction between other people in which she has no recorded voice. She bears Gad and Asher, and those two names become two of the twelve tribes, with territory, a share in the land and a place in every later list. So the tribal structure of Israel rests in part on a woman the text will not let speak. Later Jewish tradition tried to fill the gap, making her a daughter of Laban in some accounts, which reads as an attempt to give her a standing the original does not. The name reached English through the Latin bible and was picked up by Protestant families who read the whole of it rather than the famous parts.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Hebrew name has no agreed derivation. Suggestions have included a word for a drop or a trickle, and a word for frailty, and neither has convinced. It may not be Hebrew at all — several names in the same passages appear to come from outside the language. The reference works that print a meaning are choosing among guesses, and the honest position is that a name recorded this early can simply be older than any explanation we have for it.
How the name formed
- A Hebrew name of uncertain derivation appears in Genesis
- Zilpah bears Gad and Asher, ancestors of two of the twelve tribes
- The Latin bible carries the name into western Europe
- English-speaking Protestant families adopt it from close reading
- American records carry the respelling Zelpha
Related forms: Zilpah · Zilpha · Zelpha
Pronouncing Zelpha
ZEL-fuh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The ph is an f, as it always is in names that reached English through Latin, and the first vowel is the one in bell rather than the one in zeal.
Nicknames for Zelpha
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 191639 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #750reached in 1891
- Change vs 1956
- 0.0%6 in 1957, from 6
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.
Zelpha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zilpah in Hebrew — transliteration
- Zilpha in English — spelling variant
- Zelpha in Latin — same name
Zelphas among us
people named Zelpha are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Zelpha sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Genuinely ancient, and rare enough that no one else in a school will have it
- Short, clear and easier to say than most biblical names of its length
- Opens with a Z, which is memorable without being difficult
- The story attached to it is a hard one, and a child who reads the passage will find a woman with no voice in it.
- The commoner English spelling begins with Zil-, so this version will be corrected regularly.
- No meaning can be given, because the Hebrew name has never been satisfactorily explained.
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Zelpha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Zelphas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Zelpha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zelpha in 2025?
- Zelpha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Zelpha with classmates?
- Zelpha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More Z names
The most-given names starting with Z, all years combined.
Zoe#31 · Zoey#69 · Zara#212 · Zuri#328 · Zelma#6838 · Zelda#832 · Zariah#449 · Zella#1733
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zelpha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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