I have thought for years that Zephany should be a modern English masculine form of
Zephaniah as
Zachary is for
Zachariah and
Jeremy for
Jeremiah. (Zedeky would also work for
Zedekiah.) I don't recall having seen it as a female name before, but it certainly could have been created as a blend of
Stephanie with a name starting with Z.
A bit of Googling certainly shows that Zephne is a South African name. I quickly found several examples, including one born in South
Africa who now lives in Brazil. There is a woman named Zephne
Weston who seems to have a real estate business and to be a contestant in the "Mrs. South
Africa" contest. References to her and to at least one other Zephne often put an accent mark over the final "e", which makes me wonder if they are pronouncing it more like "Zef-nay" than "Zef-nee".
This message was edited 8/24/2023, 8:43 PM