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Cephas

#5,069 in 2025Boys' name

Stone, rock

Cephas has been given to 930 babies in the U.S. since 1898. In 2025 it ranked #5,069 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1921, with 23 recorded.

Babies named Cephas, 2025

1 in 174,000

Cephas over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Cephas: meaning, origin, and history

Stone, rock

Aramaic

What Cephas means

Cephas means “stone, rock”, associated with kēp̄ā.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Borrowed from Latin Cēphās, from Ancient Greek Κηφᾶς (Kēphâs), from Aramaic כֵּיפָא/Classical Syriac ܟܐܦܐ (kēp̄ā, “stone, rock”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Cephas (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Cephas is used in English. Its origins include Aramaic.

Cephas comes through Latin Cēphās, Ancient Greek Κηφᾶς, Aramaic כֵּיפָא and Classical Syriac ܟܐܦܐ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Cephas is pronounced /ˈsi.fəs/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 930 boys were recorded with the name Cephas between 1898 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 23 in 1921; its best national rank was #1,025 in 1898.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,026 in 2020 to #5,069 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #6,737 in 2015 to #5,069 in 2025.

How common is Cephas?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 174,000
19 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 89,900
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#5,069
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
120,943 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Cephas sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 120,943 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cephas. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cephass were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Cephas was born before 1948 — so the typical Cephas is around 77 today.

Median birth year
1948
About 77 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
16.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
22.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
459
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 16.7% of all recorded uses (155).

Is Cephas rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+3,363
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+957
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,668
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.58×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
82.6%
Peak was 1921 (23)
Years since peak
104
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,025
1898

Spellings of Cephas

Cephas is not the most common spelling — Chas is, with 48.3% against Cephas's 14.0%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Cephas is used

Across 1910–2025, Cephas was most concentrated in Virginia — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 244,377 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Virginia1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Cephas has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Cephas around the world

Where Cephas ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2013–2013
    #4,685
    in 2013
  • France
    1997–2022
    #6,714
    in 2022
  • Canada
    2016–2016
    #2,748
    in 2016
  • South Australia
    2013–2013
    #754
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Cephas by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#5,069
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 957
Best rank ever
#1,025
1898
Peak year
1921
23 that year
First recorded
1898
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
930
Count in 2025
19

Names similar to Cephas

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CephusPinchasSahasPhinehasSaahasYashasArthasChasCleophasSuhasCepedaVihasPrabhasIsaihas

Sibling names for Cephas

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Cephas

Top names of 1921, Cephas's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1898Boys' names starting with C