Efren
Meaning
“Spanish form of Ephraim, Hebrew for 'fruitful'”
The story
Efren is the Spanish form, usually written Efrén, of Ephrem, a Syriac name that runs back to the Hebrew Ephraim, fruitful. Its saint earned the name's meaning the scholarly way: Ephrem the Syrian, the fourth-century deacon of Edessa, left more than four hundred surviving hymns and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1920, the Harp of the Spirit to the tradition that sings him. Its modern legend earned it with a cue: Efren Reyes, the Filipino pool player nicknamed the Magician for his impossible escapes, won the first televised World Pool Championship in 1999, and many in the sport call him the greatest to ever play. Mexico contributed the poet Efrén Rebolledo. The American record climbed from 163 boys in the 1920s to 1,773 in the 2000s. A name meaning fruitful, borne by a man with four hundred hymns and another with a thousand tricks.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Efren peaked in the 1990s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
214 people · the #24,231 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 42
Among people named Efren living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Efren
Most people given the name Efren in the United States were born between 1980 and 2009. The Efren you meet today is most often in his 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Efren deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Efren truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Efren fits with your family’s names and surname.
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