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Zephyr

masculine nameGreek/ˈzɛfɚ/

Zephyr is the Greek name for the west wind, Zephyros, and for the god who personified it.24 In English the word zephyr came to mean any light, gentle breeze, and the name followed.3

Greek Ζέφυρος (Zéphuros), to Latin zephyrus, to English zephyr.34

Rank 1196among US boys in 2025169US boys named Zephyr in 202529US girls named Zephyr in 2025
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus: Venus stands on a scallop shell at the sea’s edge. At the upper left two winged figures embrace in the air and blow; a ring marks the wind god Zephyrus and the figure he carries.

Ζέφυρος

Zephyrus at the left of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, dated 1485 on Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia says he blows at Venus, with the wind shown by lines from his mouth, and carries a young female, probably Aura, the personification of a lighter breeze; it also notes the reading that she is the nymph Chloris.56

Meaning

What does Zephyr mean?

Zephyr means “west wind”. It is Greek Zephyros, the word for that wind, and the name of the god who was the wind.24

Wikipedia describes Zephyrus as the son of Eos, the goddess of dawn, and the most gentle and favourable of the winds, associated with flowers and spring. His Roman counterpart was Favonius.4

Where does the Greek word come from?

Nobody has settled it. Wikipedia says the name is attested in Mycenaean Greek as ze-pu2-ro in Linear B, which points to an early form *Dzépʰuros.4 An old suggestion links it to Greek zóphos, “darkness” or “west”, but Wikipedia says the sound change needed is unlikely, and that the word could be older than Greek.4

The west sense stayed: Wikipedia points to Epizephyrian Locris, a Greek colony in southern Italy, west of Greece, whose name uses a form of the wind’s.4

Route

How did a Greek wind reach English?

  1. ze-pu2-roMycenaean Greek, written in the Linear B syllabary.4
  2. ΖέφυροςAncient Greek Zéphuros, the west wind and its god.43
  3. zephyrusLatin, “west wind”.3
  4. zephyrEnglish. Wiktionary lists zefir and zéphire as doublets, words that reached other languages by other routes from the same source.3

In the US

How popular is Zephyr in the United States?

Zephyr is still rare. In 2025 169 American boys were named Zephyr, which ranked 1196, and 29 girls got it too.1

Zephyr, babies per million born
Babies given the name per million boys born, one point per year, 1880 to 2025. Social Security Administration national file, which lists names given to at least five babies of one sex in a year.1 Total births named Zephyr in the file: 2,528.

Other languages

What are Zephyr’s forms in other languages?

  • ΖέφυροςAncient Greek
  • ZephyrusLatin
  • ZephyrinusLate Roman
  • CéfiroSpanish
  • CeferinoSpanish
  • ZeferinoPortuguese
Variants
Behind the Name lists Zephyros and Zephyrus as variants of Zephyr.2
Used for both sexes
The SSA file shows the name mostly for boys: in 2025 29 girls were named Zephyr against 169 boys.1

Records

Who has carried the name?

Zephyrus
The Greek god of the west wind. Wikipedia says he received a cult in ancient times, minor beside the Twelve Olympians, with traces in classical Athens.4
Zephyr Wright
African-American civil rights activist, 1915 to 1988, personal chef to President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson from 1942 to 1969.7
Zephyr Teachout
American attorney, author and professor at Fordham University, born 1971; she ran for governor of New York in 2014.8

In words

What else can the word zephyr mean?

a light wind
Wiktionary’s first sense is a light wind from the west, and the second is any light, refreshing breeze.3
fine fabric
Wiktionary also lists anything of fine, soft or light quality, especially fabric.3
a sweet
A soft confection of whipped fruit purée, sugar and egg whites, set with a gelling agent. Wiktionary says this sense is borrowed from Russian зефир.3

Test yourself

Three questions from this page

Where does your vocabulary land?

Twelve words, each known by fewer Americans than the last. Your estimate is set against 221,268 people tested in a published study of how many Americans know each word.9

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Sources

Where every claim comes from

Every claim on this page was checked on 6 November 2026 against the pages below. The popularity chart is computed from the government file, not typed in.

  1. Social Security Administration, national baby names file, 1880 to 2025: names given to at least five babies of one sex in a year. ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html. Read from a Wayback copy of the file dated 2 November 2026. Rates per million babies of that sex are computed from it.
  2. Behind the Name, “Zephyr”: meaning and history, variants, other languages. behindthename.com/name/zephyr. Opened 6 November 2026.
  3. Wiktionary, “zephyr”: etymology and senses. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zephyr. Opened 6 November 2026.
  4. Wikipedia, “Zephyrus”: the god, the Greek word, the Mycenaean spelling, the cult. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyrus. Opened 6 November 2026.
  5. Wikipedia, “The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)”: the figures at the left. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Botticelli). Opened 6 November 2026.
  6. Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, scan from the Yorck Project (2002), via Wikimedia Commons (“Sandro Botticelli 046.jpg”), public domain, dated 1485 there. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sandro_Botticelli_046.jpg. Opened 6 November 2026.
  7. Wikipedia, “Zephyr Wright”. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_Wright. Opened 6 November 2026.
  8. Wikipedia, “Zephyr Teachout”. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_Teachout. Opened 6 November 2026.
  9. Brysbaert, M., et al. “Word prevalence norms for 62,000 English lemmas”. Behavior Research Methods 51 (2019): 467–479. doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1077-9

Image credits and data

Page image: Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, Yorck Project scan, public domain, original file from Wikimedia Commons (2048 by 1322 pixels), shown at 1000 pixels.

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