Ephraim
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "fruitful" or "productive".
Name Census estimates that about 6,696 living Americans carry the first name Ephraim. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ephraim today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ephraim births was 2017 (260 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ephraim. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ephraim with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.7K
~ 1 in 51,188 Americans
Peak year
2017
260 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#979
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ephraim in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,916 people with the first name Ephraim, which placed it at #3,500 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,500
National first-name rank
People counted
5.9K
5,916 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ephraim
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ephraim is White at 53.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (10.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ephraim described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ephraim at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.0% · 3,133
- Black or African American23.3% · 1,377
- Hispanic or Latino10.7% · 635
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.4% · 494
- Two or more races4.0% · 238
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 39
Popularity
Ephraim: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ephraim from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,182 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ephraim remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ephraim by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ephraim during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ephraims live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Ephraim, while Oklahoma, Nevada, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 139 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ephraim
The name Ephraim has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew words "ephrah" meaning "ash heap" or "fertile" and "parah" meaning "to bear fruit." The name is thought to have originated sometime around the 2nd millennium BC.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Ephraim comes from the Bible's Old Testament. Ephraim was one of the two sons of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers in the Book of Genesis. Ephraim and his brother Manasseh were born in Egypt to Joseph's wife Asenath. The two brothers went on to become the patriarchs of two of the twelve tribes of Israel.
In the Book of Joshua, the territory allotted to the tribe of Ephraim is described as being located in the central region of ancient Palestine, roughly corresponding to modern-day Samaria. The tribe played a significant role in the history of ancient Israel, with several notable figures bearing the name Ephraim.
One such figure was Ephraim, son of Elhanan, who was one of David's mighty warriors according to 2 Samuel 23:34. Another was Ephraim, son of Micah, who is mentioned in Judges 17:1-4 as the maker of a silver idol that became the object of worship for the tribe of Dan.
During the reign of King Jeroboam I in the 10th century BC, the northern tribes of Israel broke away from the united kingdom, forming their own kingdom with its capital in Samaria. This northern kingdom was often referred to as the "House of Ephraim" or "Ephraim" due to the tribe's prominent role.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Ephraim. One was Ephraim Syrus (306-373 AD), a prominent Christian theologian and hymnographer who was born in Nisibis, Mesopotamia. Another was Ephraim of Antioch (c. 505-546 AD), a Byzantine theologian and author who served as Patriarch of Antioch from 538 to 546 AD.
In more recent times, notable figures with the name Ephraim include Ephraim Chambers (c. 1680-1740), an English writer and editor who published the influential Cyclopaedia, or a Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830) was an American physician credited with performing one of the first successful abdominal surgeries in 1809.
People
Ephraim + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ephraim as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ephraim: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ephraim?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,696 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ephraim going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 51,188 US residents.
Is Ephraim a common name?
We classify Ephraim as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,997 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ephraim most popular?
The single biggest year for Ephraim was 2017, when 260 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ephraim is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ephraim in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,916 people with the name Ephraim, or 1.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,500 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ephraim in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ephraim?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ephraim appears almost entirely male. Of the 5,911 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ephraim?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ephraim is White at 53.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (10.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ephraim most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ephraim in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.0% (3,133 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ephraim in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ephraim a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ephraim in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ephraim still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ephraim in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ephraim can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Ephraim?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.