Zelpha

Girls' name

Form of Zilpah

Zelpha has been given to 956 babies in the U.S. since 1886. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1916, with 39 recorded.

Babies named Zelpha, 1957

1 in 700,000

Zelpha over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zelpha: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Zilpah

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Zelpha means

Zelpha is a form of Zilpah.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Zelpha is used in Biblical Latin and Biblical Greek.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Zilpah.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 956 girls were recorded with the name Zelpha between 1886 and 1957. Its highest annual count was 39 in 1916; its best national rank was #795 in 1891.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

U.S. Social Security Administration: national name data and limitations

How common is Zelpha?

Zelpha had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1957, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1957: 1 in 700,000; 6 of 4,201,368 births
Among girls only: 1 in 341,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1957: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 485,362 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Zelpha sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1957 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 485,362 children born in 1957 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zelpha. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zelphas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zelpha was born before 1919 — so the typical Zelpha is around 106 today.

Median birth year: 1919; About 106 years old
Biggest decade: 1910s; 26.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 16.5%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 39; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1910s — 26.8% of all recorded uses (256).

Is Zelpha 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: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1916 (39)
Years since peak: 109; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 25.2% average annual change
Best rank ever: #795; 1891

Spellings of Zelpha

Zelpha is not the most common spelling — Zelma is, with 26.4% against Zelpha's 1.5%.

Zelma26.4%16,824
Zelda26.3%16,734
Zella21.0%13,369
Alpha11.3%7,188
Delphia6.7%4,251
Delpha3.2%2,025
Zelia1.8%1,177
Zelpha1.5%956

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 Zelpha is used

Across 1910–2025, Zelpha was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 227,488 across all states with data. It was least common in Oklahoma (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Arkansas1 in 100,000
2Missouri1 in —
3Oklahoma1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Zelpha has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Zelpha by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #795; 1891
Peak year: 1916; 39 that year
First recorded: 1886
Last recorded: 1957
All-time count: 956
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Zelpha

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

Zelena Zelia Zelie Zelina Zellie Zela Zelaya Zelene Zelphia Zeldy Zilpha Delpha Zelah Zella Zelda Zelma Zell Zelta Alpha Zelani Josepha Zelayah Zeliana Zelyiana

Sibling names for Zelpha

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

For a sister

Era Leatha Leone Artie Hettie Cecil Ona Albina

For a brother

Winfield Dorsey Isadore Aloysius Hyman Regis Sydney Meyer

Explore around Zelpha

Top names of 1916, Zelpha's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1891 Girls' names starting with Z