Gefen
Hebrew for "grape vine", and one of the rare names Poland gives to women and men alike. Fewer than 40 people here carry it, weighted about three to one toward women, so you could go a lifetime without meeting one.
Gefen Pronunciation
Gefen is pronounced GE-fen (/ˈgɛfɛn/).
What Gefen means
Where Gefen comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Gefen comes from Hebrew, where the word means the grape vine. It belongs to the blessing said over wine, borei pri hagafen, creator of the fruit of the vine. The name arrives with that cup already in hand. In Polish the meaning is winorośl.
In Israel Gefen is given to girls and to boys, and it has no diminutive and no variant. There is nothing to shorten. A vine climbs by leaning on wood or stone firmer than itself, and it yields fruit only after slow years of growth. The name keeps that meaning close to the plant it names.
Picture the name on a Polish class register. It would stand there with no Katarzyna-style nickname to soften it, spelled the same in every column. What a bearer holds is the older sense: gefen, the vine of the wine blessing, winorośl in Polish.
How many people are named Gefen
1 in 751461 women in Poland is named Gefen. 37 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #6460 among female names.