Ephrem
Ephrem was given to 13 boys in 2025, #6,564 among boys’ names; 250 Americans have been recorded with it since 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ephrem by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ephrem mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ephrem is “a male given name from Classical Syriac, of historical usage, equivalent to English Ephraim, notably held by Ephrem the Syrian.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ephrem?
#6,564 among boys’ names, 2025
Ephrem rose from #7,650 in 2015 to #6,564 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 5.2 to 7.6 per million.
17 babies in 2021, the peak
Ephrem peaked in 2021, when 17 boys were given it, #5,400 among boys’ names. The 13 births of 2025 are 76% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #6,564 | 7.6 |
| 2024 | 12 | #6,953 | 7.0 |
| 2023 | 15 | #6,013 | 8.8 |
| 2022 | 15 | #5,949 | 8.6 |
| 2021 | 17 | #5,400 | 9.7 |
| 2020 | 6 | #11,009 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | 7 | #10,055 | 3.9 |
| 2018 | 11 | #7,272 | 6.1 |
| 2017 | 7 | #10,008 | 3.8 |
| 2016 | 15 | #5,865 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (25)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 10 | #7,650 | 5.2 |
| 2014 | 9 | #8,338 | 4.7 |
| 2013 | 11 | #7,179 | 5.8 |
| 2012 | 7 | #10,035 | 3.7 |
| 2011 | 11 | #7,140 | 5.8 |
| 2010 | 11 | #7,217 | 5.7 |
| 2009 | 12 | #6,922 | 6.0 |
| 2008 | 6 | #11,498 | 2.9 |
| 2007 | 10 | #7,762 | 4.8 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,588 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 8 | #8,517 | 4.0 |
| 2004 | 9 | #7,718 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 6 | #9,956 | 3.0 |
| 1999 | 7 | #8,115 | 3.6 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,245 | 2.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ephrem a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ephrem has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 25 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ephrem: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ephrem, and how old are they?
An estimated 246 Americans named Ephrem and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 17. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 686 people named Ephrem (0 women and girls, 686 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 171 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.0 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 11,489 babies since 1880, Ephrem is the fifth most given (2.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 13 of their 250 babies (5.2%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ephrem
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ephrem and names like it
- Compare Ephrem and EphraimBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sEphrem peaked in 2021.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Ephrem.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ephrem alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with EMost given first.