Zilpha

Girls' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Zilpha has been given to 570 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1918, with 24 recorded.

Babies named Zilpha, 1943

1 in 470,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zilpha: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Zilpha means

Zilpha is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Zilpha is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 570 girls were recorded with the name Zilpha between 1880 and 1943. Its highest annual count was 24 in 1918; its best national rank was #635 in 1888.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Zilpha?

Zilpha had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1943, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1943: 1 in 470,000; 6 of 2,822,499 births
Among girls only: 1 in 233,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1943: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 326,069 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Zilpha 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 1943 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 326,069 children born in 1943 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zilpha. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zilphas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zilpha was born before 1913 — so the typical Zilpha is around 112 today.

Median birth year: 1913; About 112 years old
Biggest decade: 1910s; 27.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 32.5%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1910s — 27.5% of all recorded uses (157).

Is Zilpha 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 1918 (24)
Years since peak: 107; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 45.0% average annual change
Best rank ever: #635; 1888

Spellings of Zilpha

Zilpha is not the most common spelling — Alpha is, with 66.9% against Zilpha's 5.3%.

Alpha66.9%7,188
Delpha18.9%2,025
Zelpha8.9%956
Zilpha5.3%570

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 Zilpha is used

Across 1910–2025, Zilpha was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 122,985 across all states with data.

11 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Kentucky1 in 100,000

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. Zilpha has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Zilpha 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: #635; 1888
Peak year: 1918; 24 that year
First recorded: 1880
Last recorded: 1943
All-time count: 570
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Zilpha

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

Zillah Zilah Zilla Zelpha Zilphia Josepha Delpha Zillie Zilynn Zilda Opha Zylpha Alpha Eupha Zila Zilani Ziley Cleopha Zilpah Orpha Zepha Bopha Sypha Elpha

Sibling names for Zilpha

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

Winnifred Johnie Ray Lida Maybelle Floy Garnet Mathilda

For a brother

Granville Valentine Ellsworth Orval Buster Sol Omer Ferdinand

Explore around Zilpha

Top names of 1918, Zilpha's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1888 Girls' names starting with Z