A female name. Greek Εύφημία ‘auspicious speech’, hence ‘worship of the grand-daughter’, ‘honour’, or ‘good repute’. The name occurs in the apocryphal Acts of Peter (c. 200) as that of one of the four concubines of Agrippa the prefect, who were converted and suffered for their chastity. It was also the name of a 4th-C Bithynian martyr who has a place in the Roman Calendar. Eufemia or Eupheme are found in England from about 1200, and by the 16th C it was usually shortened to Epham, Effum, or Effim. Lyford 1655 gives Eupheme, but by his time the name was probably confined to Scotland, where it still flourishes, often in the pet-form Effie, One of James Boswell’s dd. bore this name. A m. form Eyphemius occurs at Cambridge in 1629.

Eufemia Curia Regis Rolls 1205, 1210, 1221, Placita de Quo Warranto 1292, Feudal Aids 1284, 1346. Eufemmia Hundred Rolls 1270. Euphemia Feudal Aids 1346, Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Epham Yorks Rec 1604.

(In Scotland, at first often and now occasionally Euphame.) In Greek, the word means ‘fair speech’ and ‘abstinence from foul speech’, the latter having a connotation of ‘silence,’ hence of constancy, as in the legend of that virgin martyr (307 A. D.) of Bithynia who gave to the name its far-flung popularity. It is difficult to determine why Euphame, Euphemia should be so often used in Scotland, so rarely in England; perhaps it is ‘only another attempt to translate the Keltic Aoiffe’ (Yonge).

From Greek Ευφημια, words of good omen, from eu good, φημι to declare.

Greek (feminine) - One who speaks sweetly.