If I saw it: Seems nice. Easy to say, easy to get used to. It seems vaguely familiar because of
Zachariah and
Zephyr.
Zeph sounds like both
Zack and
Jeff, but is "new." It even sounds a little bit like
Stephanie - Zachariah/Zachary, Zephaniah/Zephany?
If I were to consider using it: I personally wouldn't use names based on their sounding good and being respectable-because-Biblical, if they aren't basically vernacular in my own culture. I feel kinda the same as I do about names from any foreign culture. That -iah ending seems pointedly religious to me. I want to know a little bit about their native context, and find it appealing from my own perspective, before I am comfortable to consider it as a name for my kid. If my own name were from the bible and not commonly used in my culture, I'd want to know about that character's story. What were the prophecies of
Zephaniah about? Or is the name referring to someone more recent and well-known? I don't mind using names that float free of history and meaning, but I balk at using ones that I know do have it and I'm just ignorant of it.
- mirfak