Zephyr
Masculine · “West wind”
Zephyr is given to both — 2,528 boys and 695 girls since 1880. See Zephyr as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Zephyr is the west wind itself — Zephyros, the wind that Homer's poems name alongside the north and the south. Chaucer opened the Canterbury Tales with it, spelled Zephirus, breathing on the young crops. Two syllables, a soft f in the middle, and an ending that lands lightly.
How old is the name Zephyr?
Zephyr first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Zephyr is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,500 people named Zephyr are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zephyr most popular?
Zephyr peaked in 2021, reaching #1092 nationally. Today it ranks #1196, 104 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Zephyr appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Zephyros to Zephyr
The story of Zephyr
The name begins in Greek as Zephyros, one of the four winds given a personality in early Greek poetry — the mild one, associated with spring. Latin borrowed him as Zephyrus, and from Latin the word traveled into Middle English, where Chaucer wrote Zephirus in the fourteenth century. For centuries after that it lived mainly as a poetic common noun in English: zephyr the breeze, and later zephyr the featherweight cloth. Its use as a first name in the United States is a much more recent development, part of the broader turn toward word and nature names.
Meaning
West wind; a gentle breeze
From Greek Zephyros, the west wind personified. The lowercase English word zephyr, meaning a soft breeze, comes from the same source.
How the name formed
- Zephyros
- Zephyrus
- Zephirus
- Zephyr
Related forms: Zephyros · Zephyrus · Zéphyr · Zeffiro · Céfiro · Zéphyrin
Pronouncing Zephyr
ZEF-er
Two syllables, stress on the first; the ph is an f, as in the English word zephyr. Occasionally heard as ZEE-fer by people who have only read it, but ZEF-er is standard.
Nicknames for Zephyr
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 2022195 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1092reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −10.6%169 in 2025, from 189
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.
Zephyr in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zephyros in Greek — transliteration
- Zephyrus in Latin — same name
- Zéphyr in French — same name
- Zeffiro in Italian — same name
- Céfiro in Spanish — same name
- Zéphyrin in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Washington.
Zephyrs among us
people named Zephyr are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,107 born in 2025 was named Zephyr
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 Wilburt test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zephyr's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Wilburt climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Wilburt's path sketches the road Zephyr is walking now.
Zephyr 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 Zephyr is headed
Zephyr 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.
Zephyr beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zephyr in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is also an ordinary English word, so most people can spell it correctly the moment they hear it said.
- A documented line running from Greek poetry through Latin and Chaucer's Middle English to the present.
- Zeph gives a ready-made short form, with Zephy available for the toddler years.
- Recognizable across French, Italian and Spanish, which all carry their own forms of the same wind name.
- Rare enough that a Zephyr will likely be the only one in the school, which is pleasant for some children and tiring for others — expect to repeat and spell it for teachers, doctors and coffee-shop staff.
- The word is attached to a fair number of products: a long-running Amtrak route, cars, boats, a famous skateboarding team. None of it is unflattering, but the name arrives with those echoes.
- In US records it sits on the boys' side, though as a word name it is given to girls too, in smaller numbers. Nobody will assume wrongly on hearing it, but forms and databases may.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Zephyr
Masculine · #1196 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zephyrs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Zephyr are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zephyr in 2025?
- Zephyr ranks #1196 among US boy names in 2025, with 169 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zephyr?
- About 1 in every 10,107 US boys born in 2025 was named Zephyr — 169 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zephyr with classmates?
- Zephyr will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zephyr
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ulysses#1196 · Norman#1196 · Khaza#1196 · Javon#1196 · Jamal#1196 · Zavian#1196 · Ever#1196 · Syncere#1193
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zephyr? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zephyr and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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